


Miraculous Mini Menace AU

by SunshineFlower345



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, F/M, Identity Reveal, Not Canon Compliant, based on concept art
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-11 02:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 41,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5610508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineFlower345/pseuds/SunshineFlower345
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bridgette Dupain-Cheng has been Ladybug for two months and she and her team think that they would be better as a team if they knew their civilian identities. But after they tell each other they get a weird fifth member and who could he be below the mask?<br/>Or! AU in which Marinette has a trouble making little sister who takes up the title of Ladybug when Marinette goes off to university and there are more Miraculous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> This Au was inspired by the lovely artwork by the tumblr user http://m-alesg.tumblr.com/ !!
> 
> EDIT: I drew the main characters of this story if you want to see them :D http://sta.sh/021ut12lkvxv

Today is the day! Bridgette rushed down the stairs and greeted her mom in a rush to get to school and get the day over with.

“Don’t forget your lunch!” Her father called as she rushed out of the bakery door.

“Thanks Papa!”

Today was going to be a good day, Bridgette could feel it. Ever since the day three months ago when she had met her team she had wanted to be able to hang out with them like four normal teenagers.

“You can’t tell them!” Tikki had been angry when Bridgette revealed herself to all her teammates. But they collectively decided to suck up the negative side effects of knowing, they were a team after all!

And what luck that her teammates were also all attending her school! She waved to Emma, not Melodie currently, who was standing in front of the school waiting for people. She had her blonde hair in braided pigtails and she was wearing a purple sweater.

“AH! La- Bridgette! Why are you running? We have another 20 minutes before school starts,”

Bridgette threw her hands on her knees when she came to a stop and said between breathes, “I’m just, excited, to see everyone!” She stood up again and gave an embarrassed smile. Emma threw her arms around her.

“Oh my god! You’re so cute like this!” Well Bridgette was louder as Ladybug, Emma was more soft-spoken in her hero form, so the sudden yelling took Bridgette a little by surprise. Tikki and Emma’s kwami, Bebbe, managed to fight themselves out of the aggressive hug before Bridgette started hugging back.

Emma had Picked Bridgette up and was swinging her around now as the two kwami looked on fondly. “Aren’t they just the cutest?,” Bebbe commented.

“If they keep this up they might be mistaken for a reunited couple!” Tikki agreed. And just like that the girls got embarrassed and stopped.

“Ah! Hey!” A voice came from down the street, they looked to see the other two members of their team walking over.

“Sorry are we interrupting something?” Not Sparrow, Louis teased them. Louis had been the class clown since he came to the school, so Bridgette had been surprised that he was her most serious friend. On the other hand Bridgette was sort of sad she hadn’t guessed he was the super hero. His jacket and hat were the exact same shade of green that Sparrow’s clothes were. 

“Can I have a hug too Bridgette?” Mime or rather, Hugo asked and held his arms out. His hair was parted differently and he had on a white shirt with blue stripes. Other than that Bridgette hadn’t been able to identify any differences between Hugo or Mime yet.

Emma grabbed Bridgette’s shoulders and flung her away from the boys.

“No way! Bridgette’s mine!” All the small leader of the group could do was make a sound somewhere between a squeak and a squawk and the whole group started laughing after. As they walked into school Hugo eventually got his hug (Louis too!) and they all headed to find a place for their newly formed group to sit during lunch.

They found a comfy bench near the garden that looked like no one had claimed it and sat down, from up there they could see all the students flooding into the school now that they only had ten minutes to class.

“Hey who’s that?” Bridgette pointed to a single figure in the car drop off area. He was tall, blonde and looked like he hadn’t slept in six years.

“Don’t know him,” Hugo started. “But I did hear that we were getting a middle of the year transfer! That must be him!”

Bridgette was looking at the boy, something about him just seemed lonely. It reminded her of the way she was before Ladybug and the team, of yesterday before she had a defined friend group at school. “Let’s go say hi to him!” she yelled and got off the bench.

“Do we have to?” Emma asked but she was already walking with the group so that was the answer to her own question.

The boy hugged a woman with black and red hair before she got into a car and drove off, she seemed a little young to be his mother so maybe she was his sister? That didn’t matter, Bridgette was set on making a new friend today! The group shifted behind their happy go lucky leader but still they followed her like a bunch of lost puppies.

“Hi there!” She greeted and the new kid turned around and glared at them. “Are you new here? Do you need us to show you around?”

He looked the group up and down for another second “No.” on that note he turned on his heel and kept walking.

And like that, the school yard changed to a battle field and the person they were trying to befriend was now the enemy akuma. Hugo gave support to their wounded leader, and Louis went onto the counter attack.

“Are you really sure? We’ve been hanging out here since we were in primary school,” He threw his arm around the new kid and the sudden movement of being pulled down to louis’ height caused his eyes to widen before annoyance set in. “You hang with us and we’ll show you the ropes of the school.”

The new kid thought about something for a little bit before grabbing the arm Louis had thrown around him and twisting it behind Louis’ back, pushing him into the wall. “Leave me alone,” he stated and ‘Sparrow’ fell to defeat. At this point Emma was fuming.

“Hey you!” Emma ran up to where Louis was still slumped against the wall, “You don’t just do that when people are trying to help you!”

The boy turned around again, even more annoyed and looked at the scene they had made once again. “Evidentially, I did,” and with that he turned back around.

Before she was thinking (Not that thinking about it would have stopped her) Emma was running at the boy, ready to punch the base of his neck. Fist fights were not lady like, but Bridgette was their lady anyway.

She got a clean hit on the back of his neck and that caused him to stumbled forward and freeze. ”Hah! That’s what you get for hurting my friend!” all the training that Melodie did, all of Emma’s fencing lessons, could not have prepared her to react fast enough to what happened next.

The new kid dropped his bags, turned around on his heel, Grabbed her shoulders, and kneed her in the gut. Emma toppled back, Hugo and Bridgette came running over to calm the situation down, and they had too.

But Emma wasn’t one to lose easily so when Hugo told her to go over and apologize, she walked over with her head down getting in his personal space and punched him square in the jaw. And at that point no one was willing to try and break it up.

It only lasted about a minute before the Principle finally yelled for the both of them to stop and follow him to his office. Emma had always hated the owl filled room, too many eyes, and from the surprised look on the new kid’s face he had come to the same conclusion.

“So, let’s hear both your stories,” He stated and they both looked at each other for a second before Emma started.

“He attacked my friend! I was acting to protect Louis!” she spat.

“Your friend had me in a headlock!” The new kid stated loudly. At least she got more than three words out of him.

The Principal looked between the two of them and sighed, “Félix Sancoeur, you were expelled from your last school for fist fights, correct?”

‘Félix’ looked shocked at the statement but just sunk lower into his chair. Emma laughed behind her hand.

“And Emma, You are not in the best standing yourself,” Emma grounded. So what if she’d had five different detentions this semester already. Félix mimicked the motion Emma had made earlier.

“Since the two of you seem to be best friends already, I’ll be nice and give you both some time to spend together after school.” He wrote up the two detention slips, “Don’t be late and have fun explaining this to your mothers,”

Emma was about to grumble out that the Principal knew that her mother passed away, but voted against creating more of a scene.

“My parents are dead,” Félix said as he took the paper and turned to leave.

“Well aren’t you special,” Emma muttered under her breath hoping he would hear it. Perhaps for the good of everything, he didn’t.

Emma found her friends standing in a small crowd right next to the door, Bridgette was now watching Félix leave with a faraway look in her eyes. Emma prayed that her airheaded leader would not fall in love with the worst boy in existence.

“Look what I got from all this,” Emma waved her slip like it was a prize. Hugo glared at her and the noise was enough to get Bridgette’s attention (finally).

“Ahh! When is it? Are you going to miss patrol?” Bridgette asked and ripped the paper from Emma’s hand. From the way her shoulders slumped Emma guessed that the answer was ‘yes’.

“Way to go Emma, our first patrol when we all know each other and you go and get detention, again,” Louis quipped.

“You have no room to judge, you’re there just as often as me!” Emma glared at her friend.

Hugo reached over and put a hand on Bridgette’s shoulder, “You know we can just push patrol back an hour or two,” they were all headed to their respective classes, or at least Hugo and Bridgette were, Emma and Louis were chasing each other down the hall.

“Yeah, and we’ll have lots of chances to hangout before patrol later!” Bridgette flashed one of her confident smiles.

They all split up and went their separate ways to their classes bumping into each other in the halls and the ones they shared. (They all agreed to get a table together in History before the year ended!)

It was now twilight and Bridgette, Hugo and Louis were all gathered behind the school, away from the prying eyes of pedestrians and security cameras. Tikki, Zetta and Kippu were all floating next to their respective partners who were all playing poker at the moment.

As the she folded her hand Bridgette stretched and looked at the sky, “I think we should transform soon-ish, the sun’s setting,”

Louis made an incredibly risky move, and it was obviously a bluff. “Well we don’t really need to start for another 90 minutes until Emma gets here,” Bridgette grumbled and fell down onto the ground. From this angle the whole world looked upside down, and the orange of the sky was mixing with the track and sand.

Even in the sea of orange, Bridgette still managed to make out a small, angry dot of purple that grew into Emma. “Hey, what happened to your detention?” Bridgette asked, not bothering to move.

Emma huffed and sat down next to Hugo, “deal me in,” she said and held out her hands for cards.

“The other kid didn’t show up to detention, so the Principal rescheduled it for next week,” Bebbe said in the place of her partner.

Bridgette threw herself up in time to receive a new set of cards, “Well that’s great! We’ll just be headed off after I win this game!” she gave a cocky smile and all her friends had now decided they wanted to win.

The game lasted an hour before they had all agreed they needed to get going, and that they would settle this later. There were no longer and traces of the sun left in the sky, so all the lighting came from the street lights and buildings.

Right now Ladybug and Melodie were running their end of the patrol, but something seemed wrong with the lights to Melodie.

“Hey Ladybug, does it look like there’s something on that window over there?” She stopped and pointed to the one window of light that was shaped differently than the others. Ladybug identified the building as the Grand Paris Hotel.

“I don’t know, we could check it out if you want,” Ladybug said and the two of them walked slowly up to the hotel before climbing up to the level of the window.

As they got closer they saw that it wasn’t a piece of cloth like Ladybug had thought but it was a person, a person who was somehow dressed more gaudy than they were.

The person got a little jumpy when he noticed Ladybug climbing to him. “Who’s there?” He yelled down. Ladybug giggled and swung herself up on the awning of the room next to his. Melodie did the same on the other side and he immediately knew he was surrounded despite never looking at her.

“I’m just your neighborhood superhero!” Ladybug said with a wink. Now that Ladybug had gotten a good look at him she could tell that his all black leather get up was supposed to resemble a black cat.

“Guess that makes me the sidekick,” Melodie giggled.

“Huh, so what are you doing here?” the guy asked as he looked ahead, trying to look like he wanted to be there. Trying and failing.

“Well. Do you need any help?” Melodie asked him in her most innocent voice possible.

“I, uhh, kinda yeah,” the guy muttered. “I’m not very good my powers yet, and I got stuck up here…”

Ladybug bit her tongue to keep from laughing. Melodie was doing a much better job of holding it in, looking genuinely worried for the stray cat they had found.

“You have a Miraculous right?” Ladybug asked, she saw him flinch at the word but slowly nod, good at least he was wary. “Then, just like, jump. Your kwami parenter should protect you,”

He nodded and then stood up but he backed up into the wall scared. “I uh, don’t think I can,” Melodie was also standing, trying to encourage him.

“It’s easy! Look at this!” she jumped off hers and went floating beautifully to the ground.

It scared the stray cat even further. “I can’t,” Ladybug had had enough.

“Alright then!” She grabbed the boy by the waist and under the shoulders. “Upsy daisy!” she said. (Melodie's cuteness was rubbing off on her.) The cat boy yelped when she picked him up and threw his arms around her neck in fear.

And with that Ladybug jumped and maybe not with the grace of a ballerina, but the power of a firefighter, she landed and put the boy down.

He was panting, the jump must have really scared him. “There you go, you’re fine,” she patted his shoulder. What kind of cat was scared of heights anyway?

“I yeah, thanks I need, needed that,” He had sat down on the ground and Melodie plopped herself next to him.

“You’re like us yeah?” She asked him. “That means you have a partner you can trust! They’ll keep you safe,”

“It’s not that I don’t trust him! I trust him a lot actually,” he looked down. “It’s just that Cat claws are much better for climbing up things you know?” this got Melodie to giggle.

The stray stood up and bowed to Ladybug, “My name is Cat Noir, may I inquire the name of my savior?” He took her hand and kissed it lightly before she pulled it away.

“I’m Ladybug, don’t thank me. I was just doing my job.”

“Job?” Cat Noir looked at her confused, what rock did this ‘Cat Noir’ Live under?

“We go around and save Paris from the evil clutches of Hawk Moth!” Melodie jumped up and happily stated, “Though we goof off a lot too.”

“Sounds like a good life,” Cat Noir smiled at the two of them. Ladybug was getting ready to leave, when Melodie opened her mouth again.

“Hey do you want to come and meet our other friends?” At that Ladybug pulled her team mate aside to have an emergency meeting, because there was no way in hell she was letting some idiot who couldn’t jump off a three story awning by himself onto her team.

“Are you really sure that’s a good idea? What if he’s an akuma?” Ladybug muttered to her friend.

“Please, he’s not nearly smart enough for that,” At least they agreed on one thing about the cat boy. “Besides, he said he has a Miraculous and that means that Hawkmoth is after him. We can’t have Hawkmoth getting any Miraculous!” Melodie whispered aggressively.

“I guess you do make a good point, something about that stray bothers me though,” Ladybug mumbled. Melodie looked at her quietly until they were interrupted by their topic of discussion.

“Uhh hey you’re friends,” He started and they both looked at him. “You’re friends aren’t Blue and Green are they?”

“Um yeah their costumes are if that’s what you’re asking…” Ladybug replied not bothering to turn to face him.

“Well, it looks like they could use some help then,” When they looked back the cat boy was pointing to the street and there they could see Mime and Sparrow fighting what looked to be an akuma.

“Oh geez! Why didn’t they call us?!” Melodie shouted and ran toward the fight, flaming lance at the ready. Ladybug trailed not far behind her, completely forgetting the useless cat.

“Where’s the akuma!” Ladybug screamed to Mime when they locked eyes.

“In the charm on its neck!” he yelled as he fell to the ground where the akuma had thrown them. soon it started talking in the voice of its’ host.

“Why don’t you all just give it up? They are just little pieces of jewelry!” the thing giggled in a little girl’s voice. This one was more focused than others, they had to be careful. Just as Ladybug opened her mouth to tell everyone just that, out of nowhere a rope came and trapped her upside down. When she looked around to assess the situation she saw everyone else was just as stuck; they were screwed.

The monster came over to Ladybug first, “You know, showy earrings aren’t really in anymore,” Bridgette, too scared to hold her Ladybug persona, closed her eyes and waited for the pain of the earrings being ripped out. Instead she heard a voice that was both foreign and all too familiar.

“Hey! Kid! Don’t go picking on people when they’re down!” Cat Noir, Cat Noir was saving them. Ladybug wanted to facepalm but she was still tied up and upside down. She turned her head to see Sparrow and Mime utterly confused by the leather clad cat boy saving them, she couldn’t really blame them.

“Yeah! Go get her Kitty Cat!” Melodie cheered from her hanging place. The monster’s face lit up with the outline of a butterfly, and it went silent as if listening to someone. When the light faded the monster glared at him with a wicked smile.

“I see, so you’re a target as well,”

“I uh, what?” Was all their hero managed to say. Ladybug was not about to let him get caught as well though.

“Grab it’s charm!” She yelled.

Cat Noir was surprisingly fast on his feet, he kept the monster busy as he darted all around trying to grab the possessed Item. The others had turned their attention to the ropes, but if Melodie’s Flames weren’t going to be able to cut it, their only hope was cleaning light.

That thought told Ladybug now was a good time to use Lucky Charm. “Lucky Charm!” She yelled and threw her Yoyo up as far as she could manage. After the light show that had held up Cat Noir and the akuma, A roll of duct tape manifested but Ladybug failed to catch it.

It wound up hitting Cat Noir right on the head causing a yelp from the stray cat. “What’s the big Idea? Is this yours?” he yelled back up at her. She wasn’t paying attention to him anymore though, now that she had used her spell she needed to think fast.

Beside her Mime had also decided that this mess was bad enough to start using finishing moves, “Full Mastery!” he yelled. His finishing move allowed him to Mime anything that he wanted and it would become real, but it was only that one thing. This time he had chosen a pair of scissors.

“That’s not going to work!” Melodie yelled at him, and he realized this just as she said it.

Cat Noir had been holding off the akuma on his own pretty well for someone who ‘wasn’t very good with his powers yet’. But even he wouldn’t be able to hold it off much longer on his own. So he looked to the other four who were trying to fight their way out of the rope. Ladybug had told him to focus on getting the charm but he was going to lose his ring if he didn’t get any backup.

His eyes fell on one of the ends of rope that was at his height level, there was one thing he could do. With a sudden movement he jumped over the akuma and ran to grab the rope. “Everyone get prepared to land!” he yelled and took in another breath before yelling again “Cataclysm!”

To everyone’s shock the rope that had been holding them up began to turn to dust and they all only barely reacted in time to the sudden lack of support. Cat Noir ran over to the group that were all dizzy from blood rush.

Melodie was the first to recover, she wasted no time charging at the enemy with her weapon raised and shouted “Fatal Stinger!” and with that the akuma that had given them so much trouble was frozen solid.

“Why didn’t you start the fight with that?” Cat Noir asked confused.

“It doesn't always work, and it uses all the power of my transformation,” she said and held up her braclet right as a black strip disappeared from the glossy surface. At that moment Cat Noir looked down to his ring to see he only had four paws left.

“so it’s the same as Cataclysm,” he said. The other three walked over to them and Ladybug took back the duct tape Cat Noir was still holding onto. After tieing up the akuma with it before it started moving again, Mime used his scissors to cut the charm in half.

Cat Noir watched in Awe as Ladybug purified (De-eviled it? was that what she’s said?) what had caused the little girl to turn into a monster. He wanted to talk with these people more because they all seemed so interesting, But his ring was down to one paw that meant that he had a minute and a half tops.

“Well then I bid you all good night, and thanks for saving me again,” he stated and turned to leave. But as he did Ladybug called out to him.

“Hey Cat Noir! Right Here, on Saturday! After sundown! You better show up!” He waved his hand to tell her that he heard her, but he didn’t want her to see his face. He was so happy he’d get to see those weird people again.


	2. Two

It had been four months since the brawl that had gotten Félix thrown at his last school, one day less than that since he met Plagg and Three since Félix’s first day at his new school. Three months since he had failed miserably in his promise to Nathalie not to get in any fights at school, And also three months since he had met the four people who changed his life.

Currently though Félix was finishing eating his dinner and waiting for his sister to come home.

Nathalie always worried about Félix when she came home to find him covered with bruises, but he normally just smiled and told her she should see the other person. That’s how their relationship had always been, though nowadays the “other person” was more often than not a certain Emma. So Félix wasn’t really surprised when the first thing his sister said when she saw his black eye was, “What did Emma say this time?”

Félix managed to grumble out a small “She started it,” before he stood up to go clean the dishes from his dinner. Nathalie joined him at the sink taking another plate out from the cabinet above their heads. After she had retrieved her plate she just put it on the counter and sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Félix asked as he put the clean plate back in the cabinet.

“Mr. Agreste is a pain to work with. He got mad at me for suggesting that HE buy his son a birthday gift this year!” Félix made a disgusted face and Nathalie took it as a sign to keep going. “I mean it’s in like five months too, so it wouldn’t take all that much time? Anyway Adrian of all people comes in and saves me, says that he’d be happy with a formal party and that his father needed one in that month anyway! And in the end guess who’s in charge of planning the whole thing!”

Félix had taken her plate well she had been ranting and filled it with the leftovers he had made for her. “I’m sure it will be a good party if you’re planning it,” He replied as he gave her the food.

“Hey thanks, maybe you could round up some friends and have them come,” she said as she started eating.

“Right now the closest thing I have to a friend group wouldn’t really want to come,”

“Hmm… well tell me if they change their minds, and do let them be the ones to make them,” Nathalie said between bites of the food. Félix scowled at his sister’s words. “Thanks for dinner Fi, leave the rest of the dishes to me,” she said and moved to clean up the kitchen. When he had moved into his bedroom she called after him.

“My concealer is in the bathroom cabinet on the top shelf, don’t go to school tomorrow without it!”

Félix laughed at his sister’s show of concern, “Thanks Sis,” he called before turning it in for the night.

The next morning Félix attempted to put on concealer for the first time in his life and was yelling for Nathalie within the first attempt. (Plagg was laughing like there was no tomorrow, and it was a wonder Nathalie didn’t notice him.) But he was surprised at how well it hid the bruise after it was all said and done.

He was dreading going to school the whole way there, but eventually Nathalie had to drop him off and head off to work. “Have a good day Félix, try to avoid fights for the rest of the week okay?” she called as she got back into the car.

“Will do Sis,” he said before turning around and bracing for whatever the school decided to throw at him today. The sun was pouring down too brightly for it to be 8 in the morning, it made Félix squint when he looked around. Nothing too far out of the normal, Bridgette and her gang were sitting in their normal spot doing whatever they normally do. Félix didn’t want to engage them.

He opted to head to his first classroom and wait there for class to start. He had just taken out his notebook when three kids came running in, Manon, Naru and Andrew if he remembered right. They were clearly upset about something thought they didn’t seem to notice or mind Félix’s presence.

“Come on Manon! We can’t give up now after everything,” Andrew pleaded with his friend.

“Yeah! You could take main vocals and I can handle backup,” Naru said trying to get a response out of her friend, that’s when Félix remembered they had a band going, a member must have just quit.

The girl who hadn’t talked yet, Manon, made a deep sigh before talking “Yeah that might actually work, we could write some new harmonies for Andrew too, then we could make it a selling point,” she started pacing around the room and then turned to Félix. “Hey new kid! Can I have a sheet of paper?”

“I’m not ‘New kid’,” He corrected her as he handed her the blank page he’d been staring at before they entered.

“What do you think? would you go see a band that had all its members singing?” Andrew seemed to think he was their focus group now it annoyed Félix somewhat, but he had promised Nathalie he wouldn’t get into any fights.

“Depends,” He said and picked up his pencil to look like he was doing something.

“Depends on what?” Naru looked very small when she stood right next to Andrew. Manon was sitting at her seat scribbling like there was no tomorrow.

“On if they’re any good,” Félix found himself drawing a rather crude portrait of Ladybug, he wondered what she sounded like when she sang.

“Oh, we’ll be good. You don’t have to worry about that!” Manon said from behind him and the tone that sounded downright evil sent a shiver down Félix’s spine.

As it grew closer to class, the three people had all moved behind him and were trying out harmonies, he thought it must be nice to have real friends. He looked down at his bad drawings of the other Miraculous holders, wondering what they were doing right now.

A little bit later, after he had finished drawing Cat Noir a little ways away from the other four heroes, the door flew open and in came another student: Louis; the one he had slammed into a wall on his first day.

“Well you’re wrong! Green is clearly better!” He yelled into the hall and then slammed the door closed with a smirk. When Félix looked out the window he saw the rest of Bridgette’s group walking away laughing. The musicians behind him looked up confused but then went back to the line they had been working on before the noise.

Louis looked at them funny and then cautiously walked over to Félix and whispered “What are they doing?”

“Making noise,” Félix stated blandly and rather loudly in comparison to Louis’ whisper.

“Making pretty noise though, right?” Naru asked sweetly as Manon glared at him.

“Better than most stuff,” He said as he went back to coloring Cat Noir’s clothes. He could hear the group behind him giggle with pride.

After the whole exchange Louis insisted on knowing what Félix had given praise, and the group happily obliged, they only had about 20 seconds done but it was enough to Impress someone like Louis.

The bell rang soon after and Félix stopped hunching over his notebook as the rest of the class poured in. He was aware of Louis staring at his doodle a little too long, so he turned to a new page getting ready to take notes on the lesson.

He thought the rest of the day would go by without anything else eventful happening, he was wrong. The school day was over and he was getting ready to walk home when he heard a small voice all out behind him.

“Ahh! Félix! Louis! Wait please!” He turned around to find the owner of the voice, Naru. Next to him in the crowd Louis and all his friends were also turned around looking at the girl.

“What do you need?” Félix asked, trying not to sound mean with Emma so close nearby. Naru smiled with a toothy grin.

“Well Manon has this place in mind for our first venue, but it’s a bit tough, and we wanted someone to come with us, for support,” She said, at that point Manon and Andrew were walking up behind her.

“You need a bodyguard?” Bridgette asked and moved closer to the group that was talking.

“Sounds boring, I’m out,” Emma said and walked over to Hugo linking arms with him “Come on we’re leaving,”

“Huh, but I want to know what this is about,” Hugo protested but let the girl drag him away, why anyone put up with Emma was beyond Félix.

Bridgette turned to Manon to move the conversation forward. “So where is this place if you need a bodyguard to feel safe going there,”

“Well it’s only partly about the ‘bodyguard’ part, Félix and Louis were lots of help this morning!” Manon told her friend happily.

“But, I didn’t do anything,” Félix stated trying to find her reasoning.

“Nither did I really,” Louis scratched his head.

“You were both great moral boosts!” Andrew stated, “And it would mean a lot to us if you would come to the venue with us!”

“Okay but where?” Bridgette asked again, obviously not happy with the way Manon had dodged the question.

“Well it’s a bit of a night club,” Manon looked to the ground but suddenly felt the need to correct herself, “But it doesn't serve any alcohol, so it’s a fine place.”

“I’m coming too!” Bridgette said as she glared at her friend. And Manon was trying to act like she thought it was a good thing.

“Great you can bring Madeleine too! Boy have I got a story for her!” at this point the two of them were in their own passive-aggressive conversation. 

Naru turned to the two boys she had stopped. “So will you come with us?” she asked with big innocent eyes. She had to be faking and yet it worked on both boys.

“Well I’ll go where Bridgette goes,” Louis stammered out.

“I’ve got nothing better to do,” Félix admitted, Nathalie wasn’t going to be home until late that night and there was no patrol anyway.

The three musicians all smiled that their plan was seemingly working, “Alright, we’ll all meet up here a five tonight! I’ll walk us there then!” Manon announced. Everyone just looked at each other for a little bit before going their separate ways.

Félix tried in vain to talk to Bridgette. (She grabbed Louis and ran away in a similar manner to how their other friends left.) As he started going home he pulled out his phone to see it was only 2:40.

“Looks like you got some time to kill,” Plagg said from his shoulder, Félix hadn’t felt his kwami move so the voice being so close to his ear was a surprise. The kwami giggled when he saw his partener jump. “But it’s good that you’re making new friends, your big sis would be proud.”

“I don’t need new friends,” Félix muttered.

“If you don’t insist on keeping your identity from Ladybug and the others, but otherwise you kinda do,” Plagg stated knowing what Félix was thinking. Félix glared at plagg as best he could.

“You were the one who told me to,”

“Yeah I know. That’s because none of the superheroes are supposed to know each other’s identities, but everyone else does.” Plagg threw his little hands out in annoyance. “Maybe all the other kwami found the perfect solution to all the problems that knowing causes, and they didn’t tell me! Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Félix made a cup with his hands to catch Plagg right in time as a person pasted them. “Well cheer up,” Félix whispered so people wouldn’t stare at him talking to himself. “I’ll buy you cheese before we go home,”

Eventually five pm rolled around and Félix had arrived at the school on time with Plagg safely asleep in his pocket. Everyone was gathered in the courtyard of the school except Manon. Next to Bridgette there was a girl about Naru’s size who was elbowing the Bridgette and making her blush really bad. Félix couldn’t place her name though he was sure she was a student here.

All of the sudden she stood up and skipped over to him, “Hello! You’re Félix right? I’m Madeleine! You can call me Maddie!” Félix was taken aback by how energetic she was and he scowled.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” he said flatly without really thinking about the content of his words. The girl started at him for a second, trying to figure out what she had done wrong.

Andrew and Naru were trying not to laugh at the mess. Louis rolled his eyes and scolded Félix. “She was just intruding herself, chill.” Félix sighed and turned to the girl he had just shut down.

“I’m Félix, sorry,” He said and then turned back to face away from the rest of the group. Any normal person would have heard the words ‘I don’t want to talk to you’ and thought ‘oh, they don’t want to talk to me’, not Madeleine though.

“Oh, it’s okay! I work to make the school newspaper here with my two friends. Although it’s a bit more of a pamphlet right now Milly and Tami do their best though... Oh yeah! Bridgette and I know each other because our older sisters are best friends! And we’ve known Manon since we were all little babies because our families were all friends too, so that’s why I’m here! What about you?”

Félix could feel his eye twitching, he really didn’t want to deal with this girl any longer, but he didn’t really want to upset the chatty girl again either. But for once in his life Luck was on his side; Manon came running up to the group.

“Hey! Good everyone’s here! Oh! Maddie too!” Manon glared at Bridgette who just gave a satisfied smirk. “Alright then troops! Let’s move out!” Manon cheered. Andrew, Naru and Madeleine were the only ones who cheered in response.

Louis walked near the front of the group with Manon looking at the paper in her hands, “So uh, what’s the name of this place?” the question that burned in everyone’s brains.

“It’s a small hole in the wall nightclub, it’s called Strawberry Sunrise,” Manon stated happily. At that Madeleine, who had been walking next to Félix in the back of the group lit up.

“Oh! My sister goes there lots! I went with once! I think the DJ there is sweet on my sister,” she giggled.

“Sweet on…?” Félix muttered out of confusion. Maddie looked up at him with a big smile on her face.

“It means to have a crush on someone!”

“I know that much,” he shot back to the girl who laughed at him.

“He’s got a point though Maddie, no one says stuff like that anymore!” Louis called from the front. Bridgette had been blushing up a storm at this conversation, but no one had really noticed yet.

“Maybe we can use it to our advantage!” Naru said and clapped her hands together.

“Well here we are!” Manon announced when they arrived at their destination from the outside it didn’t look like much of anything, even open really.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Manon asked and looked at Andrew, louis and Félix. Félix for one wasn’t waiting for much of anything, except Manon to give the okay.

“Please, ladies first,” Louis grumbled.

“No way!” Manon said in response. At the same time both Félix and Bridgette rolled their eyes and started down the stairs, though Bridgette flinched when Félix wound up next to her she didn’t stop. Louis followed after them the other four close behind. (Maddie was last because she wanted to get a good shot of everyone going down together.)

It was better lit then the group had been expecting, but there wasn’t much of a crowd and the music was at a volume that reflected that. the seven of them had doubled the number of occupants. When the DJ saw all of them he quickly put on some kind of mix he didn’t need to be there for and went over to talk to them.

“What do you kids want?” he was taller than Félix and he gave off the vibe of a battle veteran, Félix strained his spine so that he seemed bigger than he was.

“Hi Nino!” Maddie called from the back of the group.

“Madeleine! What are you doing here?!” Nino demanded out of the girl.

‘I’m here because I’m following a story!” she said and gave a big smile. “You can help us too! Just talk to Manon for me okay?”

“Manon as in your friend…?” Nino sounded defeated and it made Félix wonder how this DJ knew both Maddie and Manon.

“I’m right here! I wanna ask you if we could use the club as a venue for a concert of our band!” Manon yelled over the music. Nino rubbed his temples in response to the question.

“Okay. Come on, I’ll talk to you about this in the back, everyone who isn’t in this ‘band’… wait here!” With that Manon Naru and Andrew wandered off after him, Maddie made a pouting face and went too.

And that left Félix alone with Louis and Bridgette. Louis rocked on his heels and Bridgette looked at the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Félix wondered if he could leave yet.

They stayed like that, in the middle of the empty dance floor, for a few beats of the song before someone tried to talk Bridgette.

“Hey there sweetie; wanna dance?” The man asked and Bridgette jumped when he talked to her.

“No, I’m fine! Thanks though!” She said as dismissively and politely as possible, but the guy didn’t take the hint

“Are you sure? It’ll be fun,” Félix at this point had been itching for something to do, and this was the perfect excuse.

He grabbed the man by the shoulder, “She said no,”

“Hey kid! What’s your problem?! She your girl?” Félix was so annoyed he punched the man in the face well still holding onto his shoulder. In the back of his mind he felt bad for failing (once again) to keep his promise to Nathalie. 

“Hey! Bridgette can defend herself you know!” Louis said as they watched the guy run out of the club.

“Th-thanks a lot, Félix, you saved me,” Bridgette said in a small voice he might not have heard if the song hadn’t been in a rest. Louis threw up his arms in annoyance and walked to the stairs to go outside.

Just then they felt a strong jerk from somewhere above them, Félix looked down at Bridgette who was suddenly checking her phone.

He ran to look at what was going on outside but just as he was approaching the stairs, a giant humanoid mantas came crashing down. Okay, so that had to be an akuma.

Mime and Melodie followed it soon after.

In all the chaos Félix managed to sneak into a small closet under the stairs.

“Plagg, Claws out,” He mumbled and the kwami jumped into his ring without a word. When Cat Noir Looked around the corner Sparrow had also joined the fight, throwing his darts at the minions this enemy had gathered. In the middle of the fight he saw Bridgette frantically looking around for something.

She really needed to get out of here, and Cat Noir had a plan forming.

He burst out from his hiding place and ran through the mess, stopping just in time to save the small girl from a stray attack.

“Hello there, what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” He teased her and she turned around with a horrified look on her face. Maybe he shouldn’t be teasing her right now.

“Cat Noir!” She blurted. Bridgette had always been a shy girl for as long as he’d known her, he had expected her to ask him to get her out of the battle in the small voice she always used. So he really hadn’t been ready for her eyes to go hard and her to start ordering him around. “You need to move that beam!”

She pointed to something that had fallen in the fight. He looked at it for a second before realizing why she had told him to, it was blocking the way that the others went. “On it,” He said and ran over to where it fell. He could use Cataclysm, but knowing his luck he’d bring the whole place down.

At that thought he turned around get a handle on what was going on. Melodie was trying desperately to keep the last two patrons from being made into minions. He could see Bridgette running out of the night club and in the upper area. He could see Sparrow from his sniping position, Cat Noir prayed for a second that Sparrow hadn’t seen him run out of the closet. Mime was the only one of them fighting with the main monster. And for some reason Ladybug wasn’t here yet, he needed her to make a plan!

Sparrow at some point decided that Cat needed help so he landed right next to him.

“What did, the girl, say to you?” Sparrow asked when they were done. That sent Cat Noir crashing back to Earth along with another eerie crack from the ceiling.

“Right! There are people trapped in the back! We need to get them out but I can’t use Cataclysm here,” Sparrow looked at the blocked path, his face lit up like he had plan.

“You haven’t seen my finishing move have you?” He asked and didn’t give Cat Noir time to reply before grabbing his arm and running at the beam. “Re-Locate!”

Cat Noir closed his eyes and trusted his friend, the finishing moves were all way over powered so they would be fine.

“Alright! Now let’s find them!” Sparrow said and when Cat opened his eyes they were on the other side.

“Is, is that all?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Hey sorry! Not all of us screw up in mesmerizing ways for finishing moves!” Sparrow teased him before checking his anklet. “I think I can squeeze out another 5 minutes,” but it didn’t take nearly that long, The DJ had taken them to the only lit area in the back.

When they explained the mess to the group the DJ looked at them annoyed, “You mean that you don’t have a plan to get out right?” both boys looked at him offended but they couldn’t came up with a good defense. He rubbed his temples in reply. “Alright, come on.” He got up but signaled for the other kids not to follow him.

“You dudes stay here and get under the table,” They looked at him and the heroes before compiling. When Sparrow and Cat Noir followed him into the hall he then turned “You’ve already used your finisher?” he pointed at Sparrow.

“Uhh yeah? It’s fine I’ve still got three minutes left!” The DJ was having none of it. He pushed Sparrow into another room.

“Hold your transformation for as long as possible but get under a table anyway. Don’t come out until the lights come back on!” And with that the door was slammed shut before either boy could protest.

“Uhh, Why are you having everyone get under the tables?” Cat Noir was almost scared to ask. The sheer way this guy hadn’t been phased by anything was scaring him enough. The DJ put his hands on Cat’s shoulders and then turned him to one of the walls.

“You’re gonna bring the whole place down,” he started. “The powers will protect your friends and everyone else will be safe following earthquake procedure.”

“Uhh, that doesn’t seem,” The grip got even harder.

“You’ll do it if you’re worthy to wear the name of Cat Noir,” The wording made Félix jump. “And it’s the only way to win the fight out there.” Cat wasn’t really thinking and he hadn’t seen Ladybug all fight so he needed to go with someone else’s plan.

As soon as he had used Cataclysm he regretted it, the world crashed down around him and the DJ, magically avoiding Cat Noir. He had never used Cataclysm for something this big, he was scared of the power he had used to brake ropes and a few bars. That fear had just been intensified when the last of the black magic faded and his ring beeped at him. 

He didn’t get time to think as the DJ shoved him in the remains of another room giving him the same speech he gave Sparrow. Félix just lay there, eventually Plagg let go of his transformation and he kept laying there. At one point Ladybug’s cleaning light came through and put the building he had destroyed back together.

The lights were on, that had been his okay to leave but he really just wanted to lay there a little bit.

When he did go home Nathalie questioned him about where he was but he just went to his room to sleep. He had so many questions about what had happened today, but none of them seemed important right then.

He really needed to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering Naru and Andrew were references to Sailor Moon and Milly and Tami are references to Code Lyoko :3


	3. Three

Bridgette had just gotten off the phone with her sister, and she was giggling like a maniac, so Tikki felt the need to ask why.

“What’s up with your sister Bridgette?” She asked and then took another bite of the cookie Bridgette had stolen from the bakery for her.

“Marinette’s gonna be coming home to go to the local university for a while!” She was dancing around her room pulling some of her finished art pieces off the table. “I haven’t seen her in forever! I can’t wait to show her how much I’ve grown!”

Tikki Smiled and floated over to her partner sitting down on her shoulder . “I’m sure she’ll be proud of you, I know I am!”

Bridgette flushed at her kwami’s comment and started giggling to hide the embarrassment. “Oh uhh well that too! I was talking about my art style though!”

Tikki also started giggling at her own mistake, “That too! Though your art has always been really good as long as I’ve known you!” Bridgette made a cooing sound and snuggled her partner.

“Oh! That reminds me!” Bridgette said suddenly and ran over to her bed where she had left her phone and started texting someone. She gave a small giggle at the response she received.

“Reminds you of what?” Tikki tried to read the text over Bridgette’s shoulder she managed to pick out ‘sounds good! :-D’ as the most recent text and ‘Hugo’ as the sender. Bridgette shifted so that Tikki couldn’t read the rest. (Weather it was a side effect or the main intent was not clear to Tikki.)

“Oh it’s nothing really! Hugo and I have a plan to make the next patrol more fun,” Tikki huffed. She and the other kwami made the kids patrol Paris to keep it safe, but the kids treated it as if it was another homework assignment. That is they did whatever they could to get out of it.

Tikki pouted at Bridgette, which just prompted Bridgette to pout back. Tikki sighed and went back to eating her cookie, Bridgette smirked at her victory.

When Tikki first left Marinette over half a year ago, she had left with the full intention of never seeing her again, but that plan was promptly ruined when Tikki wound up partnered with her little sister. And after seven months of dealing with the troublemakers the kwami had chosen as new partners, Tikki rather missed her old partner.

At this point Bridgette and Hugo had apparently stopped plotting how to ruin patrol this time and she was now looking at her kwami with a worried expression.

“Hey, Tikki? Are you okay? I promise that what we’re planning doesn’t get in the way of patrol, it’s just something to do if an akuma doesn’t show up,” Tikki had to let out a giggle at her partner's worry.

“No I was thinking about something else entirely,” Bridgette only raised an eyebrow in attempt to prompt Tikki to continue. “Ahh, Well I’ve told you that there’s been a Ladybug since the start of time-“

“And well the person and name change, the common goal of fighting the evil is what unites them all,” Bridgette recited perfectly to the surprise of Tikki. She had only told her twice after all. “I always pay attention when you talk about the past you know,”

Tikki cleared her throat and continued, “ah yes well I just thought that you should know, well the role of ladybug is not hereditary, it does tend to stay in a single family for two or three generations at a time,”

“Tikki you’re losing your train of thought,” Bridgette stated.

“Right what I’m trying to say is the Ladybug before you was Marinette,” Tikki waited for a response from the girl but she just sat there processing what she had just heard.

“Marinette, like my sister Marinette?” Was all she could manage. “I thought that, you know, the human had to die before a new one was chosen,”

“Well that is one way that it can end, but it can also end if the human decides that they can no longer balance their normal lives with fighting as Ladybug. For Marinette it was because she wanted to go to school elsewhere and the akuma stayed in Paris,” Tikki stated.

“So does that mean that you’ll go back to Marinette when she comes?” Bridgette asked, still a little numb from the conversation that was being had.

“Oh no! I’m still your partner, it’s just that Marinette might join in on your patrols,” Tikki sighed and thought to herself ‘if Marinette isn’t too mad at me for choosing you.’ Bridgette reacted with emotion for the first time since the start of the conversation.

“You mean I get to fight crime with my sister!” she said happily. Tikki giggled. There was no way Marinette could be too upset about this if Bridgette was so happy. “Oh this is gonna be so much fun! I can’t wait until next week!”

“Well you’ve got a Math test and a patrol until then to keep you busy,” TIkki giggled as the girl groaned all happiness in her movements lost. “Good night Tikki,” she sighed and rolled over, perfectly willing to go to sleep in the full lighting of her room.

Tikki floated over to the light switch and turned off the lamp. “Good night Bridgette” she said softly and waited for the steady snoring of her partner before going to sleep herself.

The next day was a Friday so the atmosphere of the school was a little lighter in the morning than it would have been, but Bridgette was in her own little world she was so happy about her sister coming back. She was so far removed from the world of her school that she nearly walked into her crush.

“AH! Watch it,” Félix reacted as he got out of her way and grabbed her arm preventing her from walking into a poll.

“huh?” Was all Bridgette could manage, followed by a very loud squeak when she realized who had saved her.

He removed his arm from her when he was satisfied that she wasn’t going to walk into the poll. “Be more careful, ” with that he patted her shoulder and walked away from the girl who was now in another trance all together.

“Bridgette, He’s right you know, you need to pay more attention to your surroundings,” Tikki muttered from the clasp of the bag.

“He’s worried about me,” she sighed and continued walking to her class.

The day went by in a dreamy haze for Bridgette. (Even her math test hadn’t been as hard as she thought it would.) Tikki worried for a little bit when she saw Bridgette pass Hugo a pile of paper money.

But all that ended when she transformed into Ladybug for patrol that night. Whenever she transformed into Ladybug she went from the girl who couldn’t talk to her crush and spent the whole day in her own head, to the independent and focused girl she always longed to be.

When she headed to the designated meeting place she saw that Melodie and Sparrow were already there drinking soda they had gotten from a vending machine. Not soon after that Mime showed up holding the bag that Bridgette had given him a few days ago. red with black polka dots, (She had thought it was a coincidence that it had been laying around the house but maybe it had belonged to Marinette.) an odd thing to be carrying if you were not a spandex superhero, but if you were, it gave no hint of who you were behind the mask.

“I bought the stuff you wanted, this is gonna be lots of fun!” Mime said as he passed her the messenger bag.

“What’s in there?” Melodie asked looking at the bag curiously.

“We’re missing a member right now I’ll explain when Cat decides to show up,” Ladybug stated with a wink. They all had no idea who their last member was in his civilian form and that was always a cause of annoyance for the group.

When he eventually did come over to the meeting place he had a girl following him at his tail. They all looked at him expecting different levels of disaster to ensue.

“Uhh, who’s that?” Sparrow asked when it became clear that no one else was going to.

“Well this is-“ He started but the girl cut him off. She had on a plastic face mask and a black cape, both the kind you would find discounted at a Halloween store.

“I’m a reporter! I wanted to have an interview with our cities savors!” She said excitedly. “You know the Ladyblog from a few years ago? Well I run it now, I wanted to reopen the blog with an interview with the five of you,” She had moved her hands into a pleading position. Mime and Melodie both grumbled and looked at Cat Noir annoyed.

“What? She stole a blog for us! I thought we should at least hear her out,” he threw both his hands out in her general direction. The girl giggled and the whole group thought that her voice was a little bit familiar.

“Stolen is such a loaded word, I’d prefer if you said something more like, Hacked!” She said proudly. Cat Noir looked at the girl utterly confused.

“That’s, that’s really not any better,” Sparrow told the girl which caused her to think even harder.

“Do you think… hmmm” At this point Cat was the most annoyed with the girl he had brought with him.

“Anyway! The interview? You said that it would be short,” And the girl started digging in the pocket of her cape before pulling out a small note book.

They had all been surprised by the triviality of the questions, _ “What’s your favorite color? Food? Word?” “What’s your personality type?” “What do you like most about being a superhero?” _

“Okay that should be enough!” She said happily and looked over her notes once more. She hummed happily as she started putting it back into her coat. “I’ll be heading out then, thank you for delaying your patrol for this!”

“Really it was nothing! Thanks for giving us something to do tonight, are you sure you don’t want someone to walk you back to your house?” Sparrow asked happily. The group had grown fond of this reporter girl.

“Yes it won’t be any trouble for us I swear,” Mime joined in and soon the two boys were walking with her down the street.

Melodie, Ladybug and Cat Noir had all agreed to do individual patrols until they got back as they were getting ready Melodie felt the need to comment. “How long do you think it’ll take for one of them to get bored and just carry her to her house?”

Ladybug and Cat Noir both giggled, “I don’t know about that she’s pretty fast, and she’s got good stamina. I tried to lose her before coming here but she kept up with me,” Cat Noir stated and then looked over to ladybug. “Do you need help carrying something Lady?”

Ladybug pouted and then thought about it for a second before throwing her bag at him, it was heavier than he expected and he heard things clatter in it. “Yeah sure thanks Cat!” she said with a smile that melted the stray cat’s heart.

Melodie walked over to her friend and elbowed him in the rib cage. He flinched, did he have a bruise there? Well they couldn’t be too uncommon, that’s where Emma landed her best hit on Félix in their last fight after all. “You’re in too deep Kitty Cat,” she said and gave him a knowing look.

This prompted the super hero to flush a deep red, glad that Ladybug had turned around and was out of earshot. “I do not know what you are talking about Mel,” he said and looked down. His gaze fell on the bag he was holding. Melodie was looking there too, they both wanted to know the contents.

When they tried however, Ladybug ran over and started scolding them, and in the end she made them all go in one big patrol group rather than three one person groups. They messaged Mime and Sparrow the changes and went on with their night.

It must have been about 1:00 when Ladybug stopped their patrol Two hours early. “The city looks clear right?” she asked the reunited group.

Mime answered with a big smile on his face. “Yup certainly looks that way!” The rest of the group wanted to know what was up. Ladybug had already taken her bag back at this point, she started digging in it.

“I was thinking that we could use a little bit of a kick back day, so I had Hu-“ she bit her tongue when she saw Cat Noir panic and cover his ears. It took everyone else another second to realize why she had stopped. “Mime! I had Mime!” she let out a breath and when Cat Noir was listening again she continued. “Buy us these!”

She took cans of spray paint out of her bag, and she had a lot of them in there. The whole group’s faces lit up when they realized what she was planning.

“This is gonna be lots of fun!” Sparrow said and he grabbed the green spray can. Melodie reached in and pulled out the Yellow one.

“Are we gonna make one big picture?” she asked as she looked for a wall that would work as their canvas.

“That was my plan!” Ladybug said happily as she pulled the red can out for herself.

Mime walked over to where Cat Noir was sitting and he tapped the cat’s head with the black spray paint can. “Come on, what’s got our kitten upset?” he teased but he was honestly worried. Had this been about Ladybug’s little slip up?

Cat Noir smiled and took the black spray paint he had been offered. “It’s nothing really,” he said and looked at the label as if was the most interesting thing in the world.

“Doesn't seem like nothing,” Mime pressed him, He tried to look over Cat’s shoulder to find out what was so interesting about the spray paint, he’d bought the cheapest brand with cash so they couldn’t be traced back to any of them.

“I just, I sometimes forget that you all know each other in real life,” he sighed and walked over to the rest of the group.

“Define ‘real life’,” Sparrow demanded out of the cat. “The time we spend here is just as ‘real’ as the time we spend in, say, school.”

“You know what I mean,” the cat said. This time Ladybug joined in.

“Well it doesn't have to be this way, you could tell us who you are when you’re a civilian, then we could all hang out whenever!” Ladybug smiled and once again Cat Noir felt his knees go weak, he had to retreat away from this line of conversation or he would give into his lady’s tempting idea.

“Ahh but if a lady like you were to see my true face you’d be blinded by my beauty!” Ladybug just scoffed and pinched his nose when he got too close to her face.

“Not gonna happen nerd! Now come on you have the black paint so you’re gonna be in charge of shading!”

“ow, ow , ow, I’m sorry!” He yelped as she walked him over to the wall they had chosen. They had all agreed to draw a butterfly and fill it with colors saying it would be fun and a taunt to Hawkmoth. As cute as it was they had all started with their respective hero color, they were soon throwing the cans around working on their own corners.

Sparrow and Cat were working on the higher half as they were the only ones who could reach it with ease.

“Hey would you ever consider really telling us though?” Sparrow asked as they exchanged colors.

For a second Cat was thinking about playing dumb, but that would just come off as condescending. “I don’t know to be honest,” he made a new line of red on his piece. “Like not just telling you, but just how I would handle the mixing of my two lives in any form,”

Sparrow watched as Cat went to mix the red in with the orange beneath it. “Yeah I understand that feeling, you might slip up like what happened with Ladybug earlier, and if it’s being recorded then you’re screwed. It’s something I still worry about to be honest,”

“Heh, yeah that’d be bad, but just I’m really different in my civilian form, I don’t think that any of you would like me,”

“you’d have to be like, a dragon normally to surprise us,” Ladybug called from the ground.

“Yeah, I mean Melodie’s basically a schoolyard bully,” Mime said pretending a hand would be enough to stop Melodie from hearing him. Cat Noir seemed lost in thought at those words.

“Hey I only beat up people who deserve it and can defend themselves,” Melodie called from her work corner.

“Is that how you justify picking on one kid so much?” Ladybug asked when they traded colors.

“you know it may not look like it but he almost always starts it!” Melodie yelled to defend herself.

“I can’t see it at all,” Cat Noir said as he looked down at his friend. She looked up at him and tried to make an innocent face, but broke down laughing halfway through. Cat went back to thinking.

When it was done they all pulled back to look at their work. Naturally Ladybug’s part looked the best with everyone else’s surrounding it. The first cracks of sunrise would come soon and they all needed to get home. As Ladybug was carefully putting all the caps on the right cans of spray paint, Cat Noir came to a conclusion and hit his hands to his face.

“I’ve decided!” he yelled so that he couldn’t go back on his thoughts.

“Decided what kitten?” Mime asked from behind him, trying to wipe the paint off of his suit.

“I want to tell you guys my civilian Identity-,” he said, not finishing his sentence but grabbing the attention of his whole team.

“Really?! Are you serious!” Melodie jumped over and gave him a big hug.

“This will be great! It will be so much easier to make plans this way,” Sparrow said, he had run over with Melodie.

“Uhh,” Cat tried to get everyone’s attention but they kept going.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if you went to the same school as us? That’d be perfect,” Mime was making his own plans.

Ladybug laughed at all her friends and walked over. She was the only one who noticed he still had more to say. “What’s the catch Cat?” she teased but he was grateful to have everyone listening to him again.

“I want to tell you guys, next patrol, we could go to my apartment and I could cook dinner,” He stammered off and Melodie pouted that he wasn’t going to tell them  _ right then _ .

“Oh that sounds like a great idea! I could make some sweets for dessert!” Ladybug said happily.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” He said surprised, though why would should he be surprised? Ladybug could do anything.

“I didn’t know my kitty could cook either,” she teased back. Whenever Ladybug flirted back, Cat Noir lost almost instantly, it was something she found funny.

“Why can’t you just tell us right now?” Melodie pried at her friend. He gave a small laugh at her curiosity.

“There are a few things I want to clean up in my normal life, first impressions are key!” He said trying to be vague.

“Oh my god, our kitten killed someone and has to hide the body,” Mime said and started to mess with Cat’s hair.

"Okay! I was talking more about my room but okay!" He shouted at Mime who was laughing, and the group enjoyed the piece that they knew would be changing soon enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone whose read this far! It means a lot to me! :D


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a little longer than originally planned, I hope you like it!

Hugo was never the type of person to sleep in late. Because of this he was almost always the first person in his friend group to get to school, he joked with Louis and Bridgette that he even beats the teachers most of the time.

Today his arrival time was no different and there didn't seem to be anything out of place, until a certain car pulled into the drop off area way before it normally did. It was the car of Félix's sister, he knew that because of the numerous times he'd waited for it with Bridgette, hoping she'd have the gut to talk to Félix for real that time. (She never did, if you were wondering.)

But normally Félix was in the crowd that came in the last ten minutes before the first period, so why was he arriving with nearly an hour to school? Félix had gotten out of the car and said goodbye to his older sister. (Hugo had only ever talked to her once, when she had to come pick Félix up after a bad fight between him and Emma; she seemed pretty nice.)

Hugo sat for a little bit, thinking about what to do, he was curious what Félix was doing at school so early, but he wasn't in the best standing with Bridgette's crush either. He could go up and try to talk, (This always ended with Félix walking away annoyed) he could follow Félix without trying to talk to him, (Félix already thought they were a group of stalkers after all) or he could do nothing and go back to waiting for school to start. (But he didn't want to!)

Hugo decided that it would be best to take the direct approach, and walked over to where Félix was standing in front of the school building.

"Good morning Félix!" He greeted happily, and he could see the other boy flinch at the sudden noise.

"Yeah, good morning," Félix said looking between Hugo and the door like he was confused as to what to do.

"The teachers don't open the door until 7:30, most teachers aren't even here until 7:30," Hugo informed the boy. Félix was always cutting it close to the school's start time so there's no way he could have known something like that.

"Really? too bad," Félix mumbled and tried to open the door one more time, hopelessly.

"What are you doing here so early anyway? Do you want to talk to a teacher?" Hugo asked trying to satisfy his curiosity.

"Uhh, yeah sure," Félix said and then shifted his stance to lean against the door.

"Did you have to wake up early?" Hugo was trying desperately to keep a conversation going. Félix shot him an annoyed look.

"Do you want something?" He asked impatiently. Hugo wasn't caught off guard by the boy's rudeness at all, he'd been dealing with it for a while now.

"Not really, I just wanted someone to talk to. Not many people come to the school as early as I do," Félix looked at his face looking for any signs of an ulterior motive, not that he would find one if Hugo had one. (Hugo was the best actor in the school!)

"I just have to talk about a grade with one of my teachers," Félix said and moved to sit down on a nearby bench, but for once his movements did not show any desire to get away from the other boy.

Hugo also sat down on the other end of the bench; he hadn't thought of Félix of the kind of person who needed to talk to teachers outside of school. (Not counting all the times he had gotten detention.) "Really? You don't seem like the type that would need to, you always have your homework done on time and stuff!" Hugo praised him.

Félix gave him a confused look, "Maybe in comparison to you, I miss a lot of assignments actually," then he lowered his head like he had remembered that that wasn't a good thing. Hugo had to bite back a laugh.

Félix shot him a look from across the bench, and then lowered his head again. "Hey, Hugo?" he called like they hadn't already had a conversation going.

"Huh? what's up?" Hugo asked when his name was called.

"Would," he paused and sighed. It looked like he couldn't find the right words for his question, "Would you prefer someone who was outgoing and silly to someone who isn't agreeable and doesn't talk?"

the question took Hugo by surprise, it seemed they left their old conversation topic in the dust, but even so Hugo thought about it. All his friends did fall under one of those two categories. (Louis was outgoing, Bridgette was silly and Emma was both.) He liked to think of himself as both as well.

"I think," he started and then wondered why Félix had chosen those words to compare, "Well, I guess I think that the comparison is not fair, you'd have to give me more info, I mean the first thing I think of when I think outgoing and silly is Emma, but then the next thing I think is that she is very 'not agreeable'."

"Not comparable huh," Félix muttered to himself and got up to leave. Hugo had stayed put, not sure if he had said something wrong or not. Just then a teacher walked over to unlock the door and let in anyone who was waiting. Hugo had politely declined and went back to sit where his group would know to find him.

when he got to their spot, he found that he was still the only one there. (But he knew that Bridgette would be there soon enough since she always woke up early to help with her family's bakery.) He sat down and went to thinking about the conversation he had just had.

It was true that his friend group did tend to border on the loud and silly, even Cat Noir never went out of his way to have the stealth that his animal was known for.

And with that thought, something clicked in Hugo's head, like someone had forced a puzzle together in a way it wasn’t supposed to go. Had Félix been talking about Cat Noir when he asked that question? And if that was true then that meant that the boy who always seemed to hate them, the boy Emma was always picking on, the boy that Bridgette always daydreamed about; was it possible for him to be Cat Noir?

Zetta must have sensed the emotional stress that had just hit his partner because he came flying out in a panic. "Hugo? What happened, you're acting like you’ve seen a ghost!" Hugo didn't hear a word of it, his brain was busy making more connections.

When he had been considering who at the school could be their kitten Félix hadn't even crossed his mind as a valid option. But that really didn't make sense seeing as he was a blond boy, he really should have been at the top of the suspect list. When Hugo first became Kid Mime, Zetta had told him that his identity was protected by something called a disconnect spell, that could have been the cause.

"Hugo...?" Zetta asked again when he didn't get a reply.

But there was the problem that Félix and Cat Noir didn't act anything like each other. Félix would always look at the group with contempt, the idea that he could partake in the same craziness didn't sit right with Hugo. But really how weird was it? He had already gotten used to the way that everyone’s personalities turned upside down when they transformed. And Cat had mentioned that he was the same as the rest of them.

Hugo sat there, his mind shot down every reason that Félix couldn't be Cat Noir but at the same time his brain didn't want to accept that he could be Cat Noir. Hugo shook his head, at the very least he should run his theory by Zetta.

"You know I think I just found out something I shouldn't know," He said as way of explanation. Zetta just tipped his head in confusion.

"I don't get it, what are you saying?"

"How strong is the disconnect spell you told me about?" Hugo asked, and his kwami looked surprised by the randomness of the question.

"Someone would have to see you transform or change back to accept the connection between you and Mime. Why?" his kwami replied.

Okay that was good, that meant there was no way for Félix to be Cat Noir if Hugo had made the connection without seeing him transform. Hugo cupped his partner and gave Zetta a small hug.

The morning went by with nothing else of note happening. Bridgette was talking about how excited she was for her sister to be coming home and it seemed to be the only thing worth talking about for the group. They had fallen into a comfortable silence on their walk to their next class, history.

When they walked in the teacher informed them that they could choose their table groups for the unit and of course that had made Bridgette happy, she'd wanted to get everyone at one table since she found out they shared a class at all.

The tables were for five people so no one wanted to be the one person who sat down with a group of four friends. When the groups were mostly chosen the teacher guided people who were still standing to seats that hadn't been filled. The last person who needed a seat had been Félix, and Hugo could see the panic in the teacher’s eyes when she realized the only seat left was at the table with Emma.

"Hmm, well you could sit over here," The teacher pointed Félix to one of the tables on the side of the classroom. He looked annoyed but he didn't say anything about it. Hugo acted before he thought.

"Hey, there's an empty seat here, he could sit with us!" Hugo kept up his smile even through Emma and Bridgette's protests. The teacher really couldn't deny it now, and to refuse would be to let the student body know that the whole school staff was scared of two students.

"Oh um, yes, Félix please sit there," She gestured to the seat next to Emma, who was caught between glaring at Félix and Plotting Hugo's  _ accidental  _ death. Bridgette had suddenly discovered that she really had to do the worksheet that hadn't been explained yet and Louis looked at all his friends and coughed to cover a laugh. Hugo regretted opening his mouth.

For a few minutes of the lesson it looked like the arrangement was going to work, but then everything went wrong when the teacher let them work in their new groups. Of course no one was doing the work because they were all sitting with their friends.

Hugo looked up from his worksheet at Félix and Emma who were both looking down at their's annoyed. Maybe he had made a mistake, embarrassed he looked over at Bridgette's paper finding her doing something different off in the margin of the paper.

"Hey whatcha doing there?" Hugo asked his friend in an attempt to calm the tension that had been building at the table.

"Huh? Oh I'm just plotting what to make for the thing Wednesday," she showed him what she had written, Louis leaned over to see for himself. "I've already decided to make it be a pastry, but I'm trying to deiced if I should do a cake or cookies,"

the boys looked over the notes she had scribbled, in the top corner there were some recipes for a pudding and Jello, she had crossed both of those out. below them there was a list of possible flavors of cookies and cakes.

"How much thought do you need to put into a dessert?" Emma asked from her seat next to her friend, at that statement Bridgette looked at her horrified.

"How much? You can never put too much thought into baking! And the dessert should always complement the main meal, that's where my problem is coming from. I have no idea what he's gonna cook," Bridgette slumped onto her desk. Félix looked up from his work to see what had caused the thud and then immediately went back to ignoring Emma.

"I don't see what the problem is, it's not like we're gonna be eating everything at once, unless that's what you guys want us to do," Louis tried to comfort his friend, who had taken back her sheet of paper and gone back to planning the dessert.

"I know but it's just if he makes something sweet and then I bring sugar cookies that’s just going to make everything taste duller, but at the other end if makes something really spicy and I bring something bland then it won't stand out in comparison and the meal will be lop sided," Bridgette was putting way too much thought into this one meal.

Emma looked between Louis and Hugo waiting for them to do something, like they knew what would calm their friend down. The next voice to speak startled everyone.

"Just make whatever you want, if it really clashes with what the other person makes then have everyone drink a glass of water between the courses," Félix said looking at Bridgette who had locked eyes with him when he started talking. Emma was ready to beat the guy up for questioning Bridgette's ability to cook.

Against all odds Bridgette actually managed to speak to her crush, "That's, that's actually a great idea! Thanks a lot!" As much as Emma wanted a reason to punch something right now, she couldn't when it was going so well for her friend.

"No problem, I like cooking" He smiled at her and went back to working so he didn't see the way she flushed. Something was still nagging at the back of Hugo's mind, the thought he'd had before about Cat Noir and Félix. Hugo looked between the Blushing mess he called his leader, and the silent boy he'd thought was their kitten, and the whole thing just seemed absurd.

Hugo started laughing and had to bite his tongue to stop himself. Everyone at the table looked at him but he just waved his hand trying to insist that he wasn't laughing at any of them. (Really he was laughing at himself.)

Soon after the bell went off, people piled out of the class without looking back, and the friend group was no exception. The last period of the day came and went by so fast in comparison to the pain that was sitting at the same table as both Félix and Emma.

And soon enough, Hugo was trasroming for the Wednesday patrol. Normally he would wait until his parents went to sleep before leaving for patrol, but today they had agreed to meet up earlier than normal. When he was confident that his mom would not come to check up on him, Mime slipped away from the house without so much as a sound.

Mime had thought that he would be the first one there, so he was surprised when he found Cat Noir sitting alone at the picnic table that was their meeting place. He was picking at his gloves clearly nervous; it gave Mime an idea.

Well Mime was good at sneaking, Cat had the best hearing out of the whole group so this was bound to fail but even still Mime creep toward his friend. It wasn't until he was right behind Cat Noir that he noticed just how panicked his friend was. Deciding not to scare him, Mime put his hand down on Cat's shoulder.

"Hey," He had said it as gently as possible, but he had already snuck up and the sudden proximity of another person caused Cat to jump back off of the table. "Woah there! You okay?" Mime called after him.

"Uhh, yeah sorry I was, I wasn't really paying attention," Cat stuttered out. "I'm not nervous or anything like that,"

"uh huh, You know there's nothing wrong with being nervous you know," Mime teased his friend. Cat Just folded his arms and pouted even harder.

"NOT nervous!" He shouted at Mime. And of course Sparrow had to chose that exact moment to arrive.

"And what's going on here?" He asked and leaned over the table to locate where Cat's voice was coming from.

"Our Kitten's got a bad case of stage fright!" Mime stated happily and Sparrow sighed well moving to help Cat get off the ground.

"Don't let Melodie or Mime bully you into telling us if you're not comfortable with it okay?" Cat took Sparrow's hand and stood up with a small bounce.

"It's not like that really!" He laughed out, at least he was feeling a bit better. "I really want you all to know, it's just that my mind keeps coming up with worst case scenarios,"

"Well tell it to stop!" Mime announced, Sparrow was getting ready to tell him that it didn't work like that but he kept going. "The worst that's going to come from this is you're going to get a new set of super clingy friends in your life!"

Cat Noir let out a small laugh at the sentence and Sparrow shook his head and mumbled "At least he's honest,"

Melodie and Ladybug showed up a little later, both walking like normal civilians, and on top of that Ladybug was holding a box. It didn't look like Melodie was helping in anyway really, they were just talking. When they got to the table ladybug set the box down gently.

"Sorry we're late I just didn't want to run with this," Ladybug said.

"And I thought it'd be rude to leave a friend alone for such a long walk," Melodie added sheepishly.

"I think I'm just going to leave the cake here," Ladybug muttered as she pulled out her yo-yo to look at patrol routes. Everyone followed suit. "Okay so I think that we finish up in just two hours if we spread out. Mel, you can take the southern part,"

"Alright, I can handle that," She said with a serious pout on her face.

Once Ladybug finished giving out their routs for the night they all went their separate ways. All of their routs crossed with each other frequently. They liked to joke that it was to make sure no one was slacking off, but they all knew it was in case someone was caught by an Akuma.

In the end it turned out to be just another quiet night in the city, and the group could not be more thankful for that. When they got back to their meeting place Ladybug checked the cake once more to make sure sitting alone for two hours had not caused it to combust or something.

Melodie giggled at how panicky her friend could get when it came to other people eating her food. It wasn't like Cat wouldn't love anything Ladybug cooked for him or anything. But thinking about food reminded her that she really wanted something to eat.

"Hey Kitty Cat! I'm hungry," She complained and threw her arms over his shoulders. He let out a small laugh in reply but didn't bother to shake her off.

"Well can you hold out threw a run to my apartment?" he asked her and she moved to get off of him.

"Sure she can, especially if there's food at the end!" Mime teased her and she pouted. Ladybug made a worried face before picking up her box before agreeing to running. He lived surprisingly close by in a small apartment complex and lead them in through the back door.

"Uh well make yourselves at home and all that," Cat Noir said making a small gesture to the coach against the far wall.

"Wow! everything's so clean!" Melodie announced trying to make everything a little less awkward. "Do you help your parents clean a lot?"

Cat shuffled a little in the place where he stood. "It's just me and my sister that live here," Melodie gasped when she realized what he meant.

Hugo felt another warning bell going off in his head, but there was no way! No way right?

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I didn't know," she cried.

"It's fine you had no way of knowing, I've never told you," he said and went to pat her to help calm her down. When he finished the small movement, his ring flashed in a way to indicate his kwami was talking to him. He took a deep breath, "Yeah, I need to stop beating around the bush."

Everyone straightened up when he said that, knowing what Cat Noir was about to do was very hard for him. Ladybug Gave him a small thumbs up and a smile. He nodded and soon a green light filled the room and in a flash left one boy standing where their friend was.

"Uh, so My name is Félix Sancoeur, and um," He looked at all his friends waiting for them to save him from his awkward introduction. What he saw left him very confused though, Melodie Looked like someone had been killed in front of her and Ladybug was turned around trying to count,  _ something.  _ When his eyes landed on Sparrow the Hero burst out into a laughing fit he'd been holding back and Mime looked absolutely elated.

"No way! I knew it!" Mime yelled and threw his arms around and very confused Félix who still had his hand up in a position to wave.

"What?" Was all Félix managed in the chaos that had been unleashed. "What?!" Louder, waiting for an answer from someone.

"I knew it! I can’t believe it!" Mime yelled into his ear, well Félix wasn't getting a coherent answer from him for a while.

"Oh my god, this is perfect," Sparrow managed to get out between breaths and laughs. It was the first time Félix had seen him so hysteric.

"What?!" Félix tried once more. Mime and Sparrow did not improve how helpful they were after another ask.

"Okay you guys, someone has to explain it to him," It was Melodie finally came and saved him, but her entire demeanor had changed as she walked over. Mime jumped off of Félix when Melodie got too close and Mel put her hands on his shoulders and pointed her face down so he could only see the top of her head.

"Explain what, exactly?" He was almost scared of what could prompt such a variety of reactions. He could feel Melodie shaking and wondered if she was also going to burst out in laughter too.

"Okay, uhh you know your table in history?" Melodie's voice came out shaking, yup she was also about to start laughing. But then her words hit him.

"No way..." He mumbled as he saw Melodie light up in a flash of yellow leaving exactly who he feared in her place. Emma stuck her tongue out at him when their eyes met.

"I'm really not okay with this either, just to let you know," she said and jokingly kicked him before walking over to Sparrow. "You too! come on!"

he calmed down to a point where he could speak, "Yes, yes," A flash of Green light left Louis sitting legs crossed on the ground with the same big smile he always wore.

"Ah! Me too! Me too!" Mime yelled and Félix already knew who was going to show up after the flash of light, he had been yelling 'I knew it! I knew it!' after all. Hugo ran back up to him after the flash.

"Are you surprised?" He asked happily, he seemed to be the only one whose demeanor didn't change with the transformation.

"Uh, Yeah?" Félix said.

"Yay! You know I was thinking it could be you since Monday!" Félix looked down, he had crossed a line with that conversation.

"Oh. Okay then?" Was all that left his mouth, and Louis was laughing again. Then there was a quite flash of red to signal that the last of their group had undone her transformation.

Félix knew on some level who'd he'd been expecting to see behind the mask of his crush, but was still stunned when he found the small girl who'd been crushing on him. When he met Bridgette's eyes she gave a warm smile and looked down embarrassed.

He didn't have long to dwell on the surprise, as a Small red dot flew into his face before he had time to react.

"where is your kwami?" The red version of Plagg yelled at him, he saw the others kwami were starting to gather around behind her.

'Okay so Plagg's in trouble, better play dumb,' "um, What's a kwami?" He mumbled. He wasn't really convincing anyone though.

"You've mentioned your kwami before, you know what they are," Emma scolded him. Félix felt a shuffle in his coat.

"Hey thanks for trying but you're a terrible liar kid," Plagg sat down on his shoulder.

"Well I tried!" Félix yelled. The humans all watched in amusement at the scene.

"AH! Plagg!" The green one, Louis's, yelled from the side.

"The one and only," He said a little too proudly. And it ticked off the other kwami that had surrounded them.

"We thought that you were dead! That you had been reborn into someone new," The red one was yelling.

"What does that mean Tikki?" Bridgette called and tried to calm her partener, Emma and Hugo's kwami were also trying to reach the same goal.

"Why on earth would you assume that?" Félix could hear the genuine confusion in his partner's voice.

"That's what your last partner told us," Emma's kwami said glumly. "He had said that he killed you and broke the ring."

Félix's eyes went wide, "You didn't mention anything about that!" he scolded Plagg.

"yeah because it didn't happen!" Plagg raised his voice at everyone who was ganging up on him.

"Okay then! How about we eat dinner now?" Bridgette asked and the tone in her voice implied a very strong 'Drop the topic.' Félix nodded and ran into the kitchen.

"Are you gonna need any help in there?" Hugo asked just as eager to get the kwami to stop talking about such a serious topic.

"No you guys just sit at the table, I've got in under control," Félix called back.

"By which he means he's about to drop a pot of boiling water on himself, go help him," Plagg stated like Félix needed a translator.

"I'll drop you in a pot of boiling water," Félix deadpanned without turning around. Plagg laughed.

After a few minutes he had everything ready. (And he managed to keep everyone but Bridgette out of the kitchen, and she'd only wanted to get a knife for her cake.)

On his last trip to the kitchen before sitting down himself he grabbed a packet of string cheese out of the refrigerator and gave it to Plagg.

"Thanks for the food!" Louis said after a few beats of silence.

"It's nothing, I had fun making everything," he felt a blush creeping up on his face a he took another bite out of his pasta.

"So is this as bad as your worst case scenario?" Hugo jokingly asked, and Félix let out a small laugh.

"It's certainly not what I had been expecting, My worst case scenario involved a plain ticket to England," Emma had water in her mouth when he said that and for a second she sounded like she was choking.

"What?" He asked defensively, she finally swallowed and looked up at him annoyed.

"It was funny okay? you're funny," Emma shot back. There was a silence that fell on the table.

"I'm sorry," Félix aid when no one else talked.

"Yeah me too," Emma replied.

"Okay then," Bridgette started. "I do hope this means that you two won't be tearing each other apart Friday?" Both Félix and Emma looked at her with blank stares until they remembered. Emma had challenged Félix to a fencing match behind the school.

"Nah, I'm still up for it," Emma said happily.

"I'm not going to back down," Félix said.

“Good. You’re going down,” Emma kept up her tone.

"Too bad I thought at least one good thing would come out of this," Louis said absent minded. "Hey Bridette, we better buy another first aid kit if we're gonna be patching them both up."

Bridgette was already typing something on her phone. "Yeah I already made a note,"

"You don't have to-" Félix started, Emma cut him off.

"Yeah, Fencing is totally different, you'd get disqualified if you gave your opponent a black eye,"

Bridgette just shrugged, "that's what you said last time and the both of you looked horrible after, besides we need a new one anyway,"

“You don’t have to!” Emma announced suddenly. “I’m supposed to be able to heal you guys! Bebbe and I have been working on it,” Hugo looked at her skeptically. 

“Does this have anything to do with your voice lessons?” He asked and she nodded proudly. 

“What do voice lessons have to do with anything?” Felix asked when the conversation had finally lost him. Emma laughed nervously.

“Ah, well,” She started but Louis cut her off.

“Supposedly, there’s a big swath of Melodie’s powers that Emma can’t use because she can’t sing,” He said and Emma slouched in her chair. 

“I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” She mumbled, her kwami came over and landed on her head. 

“It’s not all that much, just some precautionary things, don’t feel bad Emma! Everyone has their strengths! It’s just … singing isn’t yours,” Felix bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing and Emma made a whining sound as she swatted her kwami away. 

They finished up dinner and as Felix was putting the leftovers away Bridgette stood up and cut her cake into even pieces. When he took his first bite, Felix decided that he’d never tasted anything better. 

The group kept talking, but Felix kept quiet, only replying when he was asked questions, it still seemed all so surreal to him. He shot up when he heard the front door open though, Nathalie wasn’t supposed to home tonight!

sure enough his sister walked into the room and looked just as surprised to find her little brother. “Hey Sis! I thought you were going to be out of town tonight,” He said.

“There was a mix up with the schedules, we’re not going until next week apparently,” Nathalie informed her brother, then she looked over the other children in her house with a smile. “I thought your party would have been done by now,” 

Felix looked to the table trying to find some excuse. It was Bridgette who spoke up, “It was my fault, I showed up really late and everyone waited for me,” She lied smoothly. 

Nathalie accepted the answer and went over to hug her little brother. “Just make sure they all get home okay?” she told him. “I’m going to bed now,” 

“Night Sis,” Felix called after her when she went upstairs. After he heard her door close he collapsed back into his chair. 

“She seems nice,” Louis commented. meekly after bit of silence.

“She’s overworked,” Felix said without really thinking. But he didn’t want to start on a rant about how much he hated her employer, and he tried to tell himself she only shared the very worst stories about the man. 

After that they decided to get going, and Felix showed them all how to get to the main road from his apartment, with a promise that they’d talk tomorrow.   

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks everyone for reading :D


	5. Five

It had been a weird night, Bridgette had accepted that her crush was the silly cat boy who had a crush on her. And then quickly entered a state of denial about it. From Félix's behavior the rest of the night he had done the same.

It was only when she crashed into Marinette's bed then tumbled into her own, that Bridgette started to think about what it all meant. She let out a scream into her pillow and Tikki laughed from her own small bed.

"So is this gonna change how you look at Félix or how you look at Cat?" Tikki asked when the human girl had finished suffocating herself.

Bridgette lifted her head from her pillow and looked at her partner annoyed. "What is that supposed to mean? And why are so unfazed by all this?"

Tikki giggled again, "It always happens," Bridgette made a confused noise and slammed her head back into her pillow. "Ladybug and Cat Noir will always fall in love with each other!" Bridgette resumed screaming into her pillow, the fact it was nearly 2 in the morning was not going to stop her.

Bridgette eventually did fall asleep and then all too soon her phone's alarm was going off. This moment was what Bridgette hated most about Wednesday patrol. She rolled out of bed and when she noticed that she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday she just stood up and skipped that part of her morning routine all together. After checking the contents of her bag, she lightly tapped her ears to make sure she hadn't lost her Miraculous during the night.

"Tikki, hey, It's time to go," Bridgette said sounding just as drowsy as her partner looked. Tikki looked around and then jumped into Bridgette's bag. (Presumably to go back to sleep, Bridgette thought Jealous.)

Bridgette jumped down the trapdoor and into the kitchen. In the middle of turning around she slammed into someone. Bridgette recoiled in surprise. Both her parents should have been downstairs getting ready to open the bakery.

"Ow! Hey Bridgette!" A voice Bridgette recognised rang out and with that the last of her sleepiness was gone.

"Marinette!" Bridgette yelled when she recognized her sister. She took the fact the had just slammed together as a chance to get a hug. "Oh! I've missed you so much!"

"Yeah me too! I got home at like midnight and everyone was asleep-" Bridgette hoped for the life of her, her older sister hadn't noticed her cringe at that. "-So I just slept in the living room! I gave Papa a shock when he came through to open shop!"

"Aha! That sounds so funny, I wish I had been there!" Bridgette laughed. "Anyway! I have to get going to school!" Marinette held her little sister's hand with the intent of letting go when Bridgette got too far, but that changed when she caught a glimpse of a sparkle on Bridgette's ear.

Marinette's voice went hard. "Your earrings," she said forcefully. Bridgette jumped. She wasn't in the right mind to be having this chat but her sister's grip was too strong to break free from without a fight big enough to scare their parents.

"Um, I really have to go to school," Bridgette said pointedly ignoring what her sister had just said.

"Right yes of course," Marinette softened her face and her grasp. "But I'd like to talk to Tikki," Bridgette stiffened but luckily Tikki made the decision for her. Tikki floated between the two girls not saying anything.

Marinette smiled even brighter when she saw the kwami, "I thought I'd never see you again," Tikki flew over and Hugged Marinette's cheek. "I missed you lots,"

"Yeah I missed you too Marinette, but I knew it was only a matter of time before we met again," Bridgette shifted and looked at the time on her phone. She really needed to get going.

"Tikki I'm just gonna leave you," she said as she ran down the stairs to the bakery. She didn't look back and didn't want to think of what horrible stories Tikki and Marinette could share since she'd left them alone.

"Bye Papa! Bye Mama!" She yelled as she ran out the costumer door to the school. It was a beautiful Thursday morning and when the sun hit Bridgette's eyes she realized she was not nearly as awake as she had thought she was.

She managed to arrive at school before the first bell so there was a victory there. On the bench Louis looked like he was out for the count and Hugo was sitting next to him rubbing his eyes. Bridgette walked over and sat down joining there half awake stupper. Emma was nowhere to be found, she'd probably show up ten minutes after the first period started.

Why did they even patrol on Wednesdays?

The bell went off a little bit too soon but all three friends knew that the bell did not care that they were tried.

The day went along predictably well, Although Bridgette had not hit what was going to make this day really hard, Félix. According to Louis, he had needed to stay in during Break and Lunch to do school work.

Emma had shown up some time in first period, "Well at least he won't be able to avoid us in history,"

Louis spoke as he bit into an apple, "I think he's really just got stuff to do, he hasn't really been trying to avoid me,"

Emma looked down at her own lunch, "We didn't really talk in PE," she pouted.

"yeah I mean I had to start our conversation in math, I think he's just shy," Louis said.

Emma shifted her eyes to make sure no one was in earshot and then leaned into the group lowering her voice some. "I know Cat and I know Félix and ‘shy’ is not a word I'd use to describe either of them."

Bridgette blushed at the conversation about she crush, she remembered the words of her kwami last night.

"You're awfully quiet about this topic Bridgette," Hugo teased. Bridgette felt her face heat up even more than it had.

"I- I'll say something when I have something to say!" She blurted without thinking. This whole thing was hard to think about, and having everyone laughing at her embarrassment was not helping.

A little ways away Félix exited the building and walked into the courtyard, he didn't dare look to where he knew Bridgette's group would be sitting. He had been planning on finding an area where he could just sit and think and not have to interact with his friends (the word seemed so weird when he used it to describe them.)

However, Luck was never on his side and when he had slipped out of the building had been the exact moment Emma and been looking at it. The next thing he knew she was charging at him and he nearly dropped his papers. “Hey! Félix!”

When she caught up to him she threw her arm around his shoulders and he cursed in his head as he felt everyone looking at the two of them. “Hey, … Emma,” He trailed off, any subtlety about this situation had just been thrown out the window.

Before he could decide what to do next, Emma unlooped her arm from his shoulder and started pulling him toward where her group sat.  

"Hi," Hugo greeted when they approached, with a big smile on his face. Louis looked like he was biting back laughter. Emma sat down between Hugo and Bridgette, she seemed to think her work was done.

"Hey,” Félix said, and then flailed in his mind for what to say next. “Uh, Can I sit here?”

"The answer happens to be yes but I think you should know you don't have much say in the mater," Emma said to him then stabbed Hugo with her elbow. "This one was ready to go hunt you down," The two of them started laughing and Félix glared at the girl before sitting down and putting the papers he'd been holding in his bag.

"So did you finish everything?" Louis asked when he finished shoving papers into his backpack.

"No, but the teacher is letting me turn them in tomorrow," he sighed out.

"Are you failing a class?" Hugo asked him his eyebrows knit together with concern.

"No, Well not anymore, ... Hopefully," Félix mumbled the last part.

"What? But you're so smart!" Bridgette burst out.

He looked at her confused. "Yeah, I really don't know where any of you got that idea," He replied to her.

"Well hey if it's something people assume about you, you should just run with it," Louis suggested.

"Yeah but we already established that he sucks at lying," Emma said putting her lunch box away.

"So hey, is it alright for me to ask a,uh," He paused looking for the right word. "Hero, question?"

"Don't change your pitch and don't talk too loud," Hugo replied with his normal smile.

"I was just wondering what you plan to do about Madeleine following us around." He said and the group groaned forgetting the rule Hugo had just said out loud.

"Right that," Bridgette stated out of thought. So even Félix had been able to see through Maddie's cheep costume.

"I was thinking," Emma started in her normal tone but a little quieter. "She’s not gonna stop following us around so why don't we just invite her along?"

Louis looked at her in confusion, "Wouldn't that just put her in harm's way?"

"But she'd be in harm's way where we could see her, is your plan right?" Félix finished for Emma.

"yup," Emma said and looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening or watching.

"It might be a good idea, I can try and get information about where she hides out of her," Bridgette looked down. "I'll go right now!"

"Uh wait Bridgette!" Félix called after her and she jumped in her own skin. "I just wanted to make sure, uh, We're still friends right?"

Bridgette turned back to face him and smiled, "Yeah, Friends is good, perfect actually! Um, I'm going now!" Félix pulled his knees to his face to hide the blush that was building.

"So how long until 'friends' turns into making out in closet?" Emma asked and he buried his face even further.

Bridgette met back up with the group during history and gave them a note with Maddie's rout on it. "We should wait a while before using it, she might put two and two together."

"We have to use it before the information goes bad though," Hugo pouted. The teacher looked at their table out of the corner of her eye. Emma and Félix both looked at each and laughed to themselves; they knew what she was expecting out of them but didn't want to bother with the acting right now.

Bridgette had been jumpy for the rest of the day as it grew closer to her having to go home to her sister and her partner. She knew that they probably already figured out all the plans they needed and Bridgette was just going to have to go along with it. It was how Marinette was on her own, It was how Tikki was on her own, so there was no reason for them both of them to behave differently.

"Hey Bridgette! You alright? Class is over," Félix called to her and she jumped. She sat in the back and he sat in the front, so she hadn't expected him to hang around.

"Uh, Yeah I'm good," She said and threw her things into her bag.

"Are you sure you're alright, I can walk you home if you want," He said as they left the classroom.

"Daydreaming is sort of my thing, you don't need to worry about it," She told him. "You can walk home with me I guess, I don't live very far."

"Oh! Right, you live in the bakery," He said like he had forgotten. Bridgette flinched at the sunlight when they exited the school and looking to her left Félix hadn't fared much better than her.

A quick scan of the courtyard told her that all their other friends had already headed home so it was just her and Félix.

A thought crossed her mind that they had cleared out on purpose.

"They ditched us," She said with a bitter tone.

"Or they went home without thinking about it," Félix reminded her.

"Dosen't matter for us!" Bridgette announced and hopped over the final stair. "Let's go to my house, I can give you bread, or something, probably," Félix followed behind more respectable manner.

"Alright, I'll never turn up free food," He said and she laughed. For a few beats they had forgotten the awkwardness that had lingered between them.

The bell dinged when they walked into the bakery and while Bridgette had been expecting her mom or dad she wasn't all too surprised when she ran into Marinette. Although she was suddenly very happy to have another topic lugging a few steps behind her. (He had refused to cross the street without the walk sign.)

"Hey Sis!" She greeted and waited for Félix to walk up to her. Marinette looked up from her sketchbook and waved at her sister.

"What's the point in my walking you home if blot off without me?" Félix said annoyed as he walked in.

"How was I supposed to know you're a wimp," She shot back.

"Obeying traffic laws makes me a wimp now?" He looked around the bakery, it must have been his first time inside, and jumped when he found Bridgette's older sister glaring a hole in his head.

"Marinette, this is my friend, his name’s Félix," Bridgette said in hopes that it would lessen her sister's angry glare. it didn't. Marinette didn't break eye contact as she stood up and stormed over to Félix.

"I need to talk to Plagg," She said when she was way closer than Félix was comfortable with. Félix's eyes went wide with panic as he looked over at Bridgette, who was just as panicked as he was.

In the end it was Plagg who saved the both of them. He flew out of Félix's bag and sat on his shoulder. "Who's asking for me? Ah! I'd know that face anywhere, Tikki always picks such beauties for her partners."

Tikki jumped up onto Bridgette's shoulder from behind a stand. "Don't prod her too much, she's annoyed as it is," Marinette glared at TIkki out of the corner of her eye before continuing.

"Alright then, Plagg. Tell me who Cat Noir was before this boy." She said forcefully. Bridgette looked around out all the windows and then decided to drag this little chat to behind the cash register. (She had no trouble getting Félix to agree so she had no trouble getting her sister to follow.)

"Cat Noir was a lot of people," Plagg started and everyone could tell he'd dodged the question. 'You know Hercules? That myth was based on one of my boys," Plagg said like a proud father. Félix wondered for a moment if that was true.

Before Félix had time to react, Marinette reached over grabbed the kwami in her fist and dragged it to her face. "You know who I'm asking about," She growled.

"Sorry Dollface," Plagg started and then immediately regretted it when Marinette squeezed harder. "I can't tell ya as long as he's alive, I made a promise,"

"He betrayed your trust, what do you care about promises?" Marinette shot back.

"He betrayed your trust Doll, not mine. He might have told you that he killed me, but we never had a violent encounter," Plagg made a wheezing sound when Marinette finally let go in annoyance.

"Don't call me 'Doll'," she said and turned back to the cash register.

"What else am I supposed to call you with a name like Marinette," Plagg said in defense.

Félix looked between his partner and the girl that just choked him, he wasn't sure who to side with. "Your last partner, he doesn't sound like he was nice," he finally settled on saying.

Plagg huffed out a response. "Hell if I know what happened, he was actually really nice,"

"He was normal for so long. I trusted him with my life, but he turned around and sold us out," Marinette said with a caged tone. Tikki had sat down on a small self under the cash register. "Whatever, it's not like it matters now,"

"He didn’t really ‘sell you out’ you can’t blame him for that," Tikki informed her. 

“Watch me,” Marinette said under her breath. While they had been talking Bridgette had gone into the kitchen and found a not iced sugar cookie and some cubes of cheese. She offered them to Félix and Plagg respectively.

"Thanks for walking me home, here's your reward," She teased.

"Thank you Lady, I'll be taking my leave," he said and she flushed.

"Don't call me that out of- During the day!" She yelled after him when he left the bakery. Marinette watched him go with a bored look in her eyes.

"Heh," Marinette laughed, getting the attention of both the kwami and her little sister. "Are annoying nicknames a requirement for being Cat Noir?"

"It's certainly a common theme," Tikki shrugged as she told her. Bridgette looked at her sister.

"Did your Cat Noir call you nicknames?"

"Please, calling him 'mine' sounds like I'm responsible for his actions, but yeah. It annoyed me a lot," Marinette turned to face her little sister. "I still can't believe that you're the one running around fighting evil nowadays," Bridgette smiled and pumped the air.

"Yup! Me and my team do a good job of it too!"

"Seems like you're doing a better job than my team did, we didn't tell each other who we were, and now we have no hope of ever communicating," Marinette sighed. "You're gonna have to clean up our mess you know,"

Bridgette was desperate to change the topic so she looked over her sister's shoulder at her sketch book, the outfits that were scrawled on the page looked amazing. She was trying to design a ball gown for some reason.

"What're these for?" Bridgette asked and Marinette laughed as if to say she was fine with changing the subject so suddenly.

"The Agrestes are having a ball for Adrian's birthday," Bridgette did her best to try and look like she knew who those people were. Adrian sounded somewhat familiar. "And anyway I heard that Gabriel Agreste is looking an apprentice. Getting a job like that would basically guarantee me a spot in the fashion world!" Marinette said excitedly.

"I uh, oh! I get it! You're making a dress to wear at the party and show the famous guy that you can sew right?" Bridgette said happily.

Marinette laughed, "That's the plan, but I really do want to see Adrian too, I'm glad that his father in finally letting him have a formal party,"

Bridgette flipped through the book looking at everything her sister had drawn in it. When she got past the first three she was into other things her sister had made. It was always easy to tell which ones Marinette had actually made by the notes scrawled all around them.

"Hey, Bridgette, Would you want to come to the fabric store with me when Papa gets back? I'll need some help holding everything," Marinette asked her.

"Sure I'll be your pack mule, as long as we also go to the art store, I need to get more pens," Bridgette replied with a wicked smile on her face.

"alright, I'll buy you new markers," Marinette sighed and smiled at her sister before taking her sketchbook back. "Have you drawn anything recently?"

"She has, and she has some things she wants to show you," Tikki smiled and Bridgette nodded saying she'll be right back.

Bridgette rushed up into their room and grabbed her own sketch book plus the other loose pieces she had wanted to show her sister.

They spent the rest of the day in a creative frenzy, bouncing off each other with new ideas. Tikki was impressed with the way they talked about colors and shapes, she was also impressed with how fast the normally pretty clean room the sisters shared became a hurricane when the two started working.

Marinette had taken the area under her bed and had been cutting a pattern out in paper and pinning it to a manikin she had pulled out of the closet. On the other side of the room Bridgette was trying to draw a landscape of Paris at night from memory. all of her pencils and markers were scattered on her desk or floor, shoved away from the picture when they were no longer needed.

When Marinette was satisfied with the pattern she deiced she was done for the night. She stood up and stretched her back out. "Hey Bridgette, are you going to patrol tonight?" She called to her sister who was busy with her own art piece.

"what, oh, No. We went patrolling yesterday," Bridgette said as she finally started gathering all her coloring implements. "We're going out tomorrow though."

"Do you ever transform and run around on your own?" Marinette sat back down in her chair but still faced her sister. "It's the best feeling in the world, the freedom of it."

Bridgette thought about it, the only times she transformed on her own was immediately after making plans of where to meet up with everyone else. "I don't normally transform without my team, it'd be bad if one of us got caught without a way to contact the others."

Marinette rested her chin on the back of her chair. "Yeah I guess I never thought about it. With my team we always just showed up where the others were, like fate," Bridgette thought about that for a bit.

"It's comforting to know that fate would keep us together if we didn't try, but I don't really want to test it,"

"Alright girls," Tikki announced when the digital clock read 11:00pm. "It's time to go to bed, Marinette has to go get registered at her new school tomorrow!" Both girls whined when they saw the time. "No complaining, come on. You have give your best first impression," She said to marinette as she tried to push the bigger figure up the stairs to her bed.

"Thanks for worrying Tikki, I'll go to sleep now," Marinette said and finally started moving her own feet.

"Night sis," Bridgette called when she turned the lights off. 


	6. Six

Marinette woke up to the sounds of her sister's phone alarm and grumbled, she really didn't want it to be time to get up yet. When she checked her own phone for the time she saw that the screen read 5:13. "Why?" She grumbled.

"Just go back to sleep," Bridgette said back, she didn't sound happy about getting up that early either. "I'm helping Papa,"

"Kay," Marinette grumbled into her pillow.

"I'm leaving Tikki with you," Bridgette said as she jumped out the trap door. Marinette wasn't a state of mind to really understand what her sister said or protest if she had. The next thing that she knew her own phone was telling her it was time to get up. The sun was up now so she didn't have any excuse to roll over and go back to sleep.

She eventually found her phone in the mass of blankets on her bed and set it to snooze.

"Marinette! You need to get going!"

Some part of her mind knew that the voice was just Tikki being supportive. But that part of her mind was not awake yet and she screamed at the sudden noise and backed all the way up to the point she fell down the stairs of her bed.

"Ow," Was all she managed. Tikki flew down to check if she was okay while giggling, but she darted behind Marinette when they both heard the trap door opening.

"Marinette? Are you okay?" Sabian called into the room.

"Yeah Mama, I'm fine I just forgot I was in loft," Marinette said, it hadn't been a whole lie after all. Sabian shook her head at her older child and told her that they left a croissant on the table for her breakfast. Marinette smiled as she stood up and stretched out whatever she had landed on. (She wasn't really sure if it had been her arm or her knee.)

"Sorry, didn't realize you would freak out," Tikki said apologetically. Marinette smiled as she dug through her suitcase for clothes to wear.

"It's fine Tikki, do you know if Bridgette left the Miraculous here?" She asked looking for the stones that had caused her so much trouble threw her time as Ladybug.

"I doubt it, she almost never takes them out," Tikki replied. Marinette sighed when she pulled a shirt over her head.

"That girl never thinks ahead," Marinette looked over her sister's unmade bed, just to make sure they had not been left behind. when she was sure Bridgette had taken them, she turned back to her suitcase and pulled out two black hair ribbons and put them on her pigtails.

"Red would look better," Tikki teased, Marinette rolled her eyes.

"I'm mourning the death of a friend, Tikki," he said and then shook her head to make sure that they were in. Tikki sighed, Marinette was talking about Cat Noir.

"He's not dead though, you could be going to the same school come Monday," Marinette shivered at the kwami's words.

"He might as well be and I really don't want to think about that Tikki," She dug in her suitcase for something before running over to her closet and pulling out the small purse she used to carry Tikki in.

"Ah! You found it!" Tikki giggled and flew over to Marinette who was putting the purse on.

"Yup! Come on I have to give the school my papers," The two of them exited the room and Marinette grabbed the croissant on her way out the door.

about two hours and one wrong bus later, Marinette stepped onto the campus she would be attending for the rest of the school year. Everyone around her seemed to have places to be and their own schedule to follow. They moved around Marinette like she was a statue that had always been in the middle of the path.

"I can't believe I really made it," Marinette mumbled, to herself or Tikki, she didn't really know. Tikki couldn't respond right then but Marinette knew what she would say. 'You still have to get your papers to the student center!'

In a sigh of defeat, Marinette pulled out the map of the campus she'd printed out from off the website. Now that she was really looking at it, it wasn't much help. She began to wonder around looking for a landmark she could identify on her map. She got a little nervous when she hadn't found anything after ten minutes. She was almost in a full on panic when she hit a student parking lot that definitely was not on her map, she had no clue where anything was and the map was clearly out of date.

"You could ask someone, they'd probably help," Tikki suggested to the girl.

"I know Alya goes here, but she's got class for another 2 hours if I remember right," Marinette said looking at the contact photo of her friend on her phone. Alya won't be able to help her.

"I meant ask someone who's passing by, someone's bound to have spare time to help a pretty girl," Tikki giggled when Marinette glared at her. Minus the whole 'seduce them' part, Tikki's plan seemed to be Marinette's only choice. she gulped and turned to the crowd of people walking by.

A tall boy with black hair was the first person she approached, he walked right by her not noticing that someone was trying to talk to him at all. (Marinette told herself that he must have had headphones in or something.) Next she tried a tan girl with neon blue hair, she waved Marinette off saying she needed to get to class.

After a few more attempts she had gathered that student center was off to her left somewhere. (The way she had come, Marinette remarked bitterly in her head.)

"Come on! One more try! Then we can just follow the directions we've gathered," Tikki cheered the girl who was ready to just go home and work at the bakery for the rest of her life. "Look, that girl's sitting down, maybe she'll have the time to help!"

Tikki was pointing to a girl that was sitting down on a bench hunched over something. Marinette could only see the back of her, she was wearing a pale yellow jacket and had her blond hair up in a tight pencil bun. Something about her seemed familiar. Marinette's head went to bright days of fighting Akuma with her masked friends, and more specifically the singer of the group, Melodie. (Marinette quickly shook the thoughts out of her head, they had all given up their titles, 'Melodie' now belonged to one of Bridgette's friends.)

"Alright, I'll give it another try I guess," she said as she walked over to where the girl was sitting. "Uh hey, so I'm new here and I need help finding my way around," She started and in response the girl took out her earbuds letting the music float quietly around her and turned to face Marinette.

When they made eye contact, they both jumped out of unpleasant surprise. The girl was in no way Melodie, the girl Marinette had just asked for help was Chloé Bourgeois. 

Marinette cursed her luck for running out at that exact point, and all the while gibberish had been spilling out of her mouth. "I, uh, student, uh,"

Chloé was the first of the two of them to recover,she put on a bright smile that made Marinette flinch at just how fake it was. "Marinette Chen," She said. "It's been a long time, Where do you need to go?"

Something was off in her voice, the fact she didn't feel the happiness she was pouring into it, Marinette figured. "Uh, Hi Chloé. Right, I need some help finding where the student center is on this," Marinette was sure that the girl was going to laugh in her face and tell her she was so stupid for not being able to find it. Chloé took the map from her hands and made a frowning face.

'Here it comes,' Marinette thought to herself.

"Did you print this off the website?" The girl finally said, the overtone of fakeness finally gone from her voice. Marinette was still confused as to why she hadn't started insulting her yet.

"Um, yeah, why?" Marinette said tentatively. Had Chloé of all people matured into a decent human being in the half year they hadn't been in the same class. Marinette didn't think it possible.

"I thought they'd have a more up to date version there is all," Chloé turned to her bag on the ground and put her sketch book in it. she also started crumpling the paper Marinette had given her and threw it into a trash can.

"Hey!" Marinette squeaked, she had put too much faith in Chloé's humanity after all.

"It was useless," Chloé replied. "Come on I'll show you the way," She started walking away without checking if Marinette was following her. Marinette stood there shocked at the exchange that had just happened for a second before running to catch up with Chloé.

"Uh thanks by the way, Chloé," Marinette stuttered out as they walked.

"It's no problem. I'm a member of the Ambassador Club, I do this all the time," Chloé's voice remained steady like she wasn't really paying attention to Marinette.

'Well she's still as stubbornly proud as ever' Marinette thought to herself. "So what were you doing before I interrupted you?" Marinette asked, half to keep talking and half because she was honestly curious.

"It was nothing, I was designing a dress," Chloé said carefully, like she had wanted to avoid something. Marinette was about to quip about the time Chloé had stolen her hat design, but then realized that had probably been what Chloé was trying to avoid.

"Oh really? I'm working on a dress for myself right now. I'm gonna wear it at Adrian's birthday party," Marinette stated. "Are you going to be coming?"

"My Father's hotel is hosting it and he'll be out of town that weekend so I'll be going in his stead," Chloé replied with the grace of a politician.

"So the dress you were making is for the party right?" Marinette asked. She wanted to see what Chloé could make when she was doing her own leg work. "So Adrian could see you in something nice right?" Marinette wasn't sure where that had come from, she'd gotten over her crazy crush on the boy while she'd been away.

"If the dress is done in time then yes, I'll wear it," Chloé had walked them right up to a tallish building, the student center Marinette figured. She nearly walked into her guide when Chloé (Very suddenly!) Stopped and turned around to face Marinette.

"Marinette, don't take this the wrong way but you should try to limit the amount of time you spend around Adrian," Marinette snorted at the statement, did the girl really still think that he was hers? She sighed in reply to Marinette's laughing. "Not like that okay? He's been different lately. Just be careful around him okay?"

What did different mean? Marinette was starting to worry about her old crush as Chloé turned back around and walked her into the building.

"The desk you want is down that hall, second door on the left, see you around," without waiting for Marinette to say goodbye she turned around and started down another hall.

"Thanks again Chloé," Marinette called after her, not sure if she had heard it. Then Marinette turned around and started walking where she had been pointed.

The Clerk was nice about taking her papers and filing them fast. When it was all over and Marinette had her new schedule she let out a big sigh, she was finally done. Just finding the place had been the hard part, and now she was done!

Marinette found a bench and went to sit down and check the time on her phone, she still had an hour until Alya's classes were out. "Chloé seems a lot nicer now huh?" Tikki asked and Marinette moved to shield the kwami from the people walking by.

"You knew who she was when you sent me over didn't you?" Marinette pouted.

"I may have seen her sit down," Tikki replied jokingly. "You should make sure that you know where all your classes are, and you should find the right bus schedule too,"

Marinette grumbled, "It's not my fault I have no luck left in my life, I used it all when I was Ladybug," she had said just barely above a whisper. Tikki giggled at the sentence and it made Marinette feel a little bit better herself. Marinette stretched herself out and Tikki flew back into the purse.

Marinette's attention was drawn to the student center when the door flew open and a girl came storming out. She had bronze hair and looked like she was on the verge of tears. She was storming right up the path Marinette was sitting next to. The door to the building opened again and Chloé came running out after the girl.

"Lura! Come back," Chloé was running to catch up to the older girls brisk pace. "Hey! Stop!" Chloé grabbed Lura's arm and the two of them stopped right in front of Marinette, who quickly looked for something else to do well they talked.

"Don't you dare try to sympathize with me! You're just the spoiled little mayor's daughter who's never had to feel anything!" Marinette could piratically hear Chloé straighten up.

"I- That's not," She started.

"Let me go!" The older girl stormed off, leaving Chloé where she was standing. Marinette wasn't sure if Chloé had noticed her, the other girl was currently staring at the ground.

"Who was that?" Marinette finally asked deciding that it would be better to not lie about hearing everything. Chloé looked over and scoffed when she saw Marinette again.

"That's Lura, she's the Student Council Treasurer. The meeting went badly, she’s one of my only friends here,"

"And, did you have something to do with it?" Marinette felt annoyance surge up, Chloé had never been above using people to get what she wanted in the time Marinette had known her. Marinette had no trouble picturing Chloé making friends with the girl to get the position next year.

Chloé glared at her words and then in a hard and emotionless voice she stated, "I'm going after her now," and with that she was running in the dercation the older girl had gone.

"This is bad, Marinette you go after them too," Tikki was all of the sudden on her shoulder hiding in her hair.

"What? Why?" Marinette asked under her hand to not look too weird.

"That girl seemed like she was about to turn into an Akuma," Marinette felt the panic surge, this is what she'd been afraid of this morning.

"If that's true then you need to find Bridgette!" Marinette hissed at Tikki.

"I'll go find her if I'm right about the Akuma," Tikki informed her, "Now you need to go after those two!" Marinette rolled her eyes at being ordered around but went off in the same direction as the other two girls. Soon though she had no idea where they were, or where she was for that matter.

A loud scream came from off somewhere to Marinette's right. She took that to mean that's where she wanted to be, but it also meant that she'd failed in keeping the girl from turning. "Tikki, I think that's your queue to leave," she muttered and the kwami flew out of the bag and looked her right in the eyes, with a small nod she was off.

Marinette understood what it all meant, that Tikki would soon be back with Bridgette and for Marinette to keep her head down and stay safe.

But even though she knew her kwami was right on all accounts she still ran further toward the sound to identify anything that could be helpful. When she got to the epicenter of the scream she came across the Akuma on top of Chloé trying to cut her arm off with a sheet of paper labeled 'BLADE'.

"Please, Lura, think normally!" Chloé pleaded with the Akuma. Marinette was sure that that wasn't going to work, once someone was an Akuma they weren't in control. She didn't want to wait long enough to test either Chloé's or her own theory though.

Feeling a little bit like Ladybug in the moment, she felt a plan forming:

She needed a distraction to get the akuma off Chloé.

The paper was the Akuma's weapon, she could get it wet.

She looked to the side of the courtyard they were in where there were sprinklers watering the grass.

Distraction, water, sprinklers, fire alarm! Pull the fire alarm!

Marinette made a mad dash for the nearest fire alarm, smashing the thin glass case and pulling it. Soon enough the whole school was filled with a loud screeching and the Akuma looked up surprised. luckily (Or maybe not depending on how you looked at it) leaving Chloé in one piece.

The Akuma had jumped off her when all the classes started pouring out following fire procedure. Marinette ran over to Chloé.

"Hey! Are you okay?" She asked. She may have never liked the girl but that didn't mean she wanted her to fall victim to the Akuma she almost always caused.For some reason Chloé went to rub her wrist, despite the fact that the Akuma had tried to take her shoulder off. "What were you thinking? You know you can't reason with, those things!"

"I didn't have many options," Chloé said irritated. "Right now we should focus on getting the school to safety," Chloé got up and started running toward the area where the student body was gathering. Fallowing close by, Marinette hoped that the Akuma's goal wasn't to attack a lot of people.

When they got there everyone was standing in lines looking around to see if the alarm had been a joke. They had gathered in front of an outside stage, and on the stage the people who were organizing everyone had set up. Chloé ran over to one of the teachers and stole a megaphone from them before they could react. Marinette had expected her to start yelling the orders like the leader she thought she was, but Chloé threw the megaphone at Marinette and tried to shove her to the front of the stage.

"What? Why me? You do it!" Marinette yelped and the teacher Chloé had taken the megaphone from was glaring at them, waiting to see what they were going to do with it.

"Marinette, no one is going to listen to me. It has to be you, tell them to get to the library and barricade it," Chloé said before turning Marinette around to face the crowd.

"Why do we have to go that way?" The teacher asked from over their shoulders. Marinette finally found the surge of confidence she needed.

Marinette pressed a button and the Megaphone made a sound to indicate it was ready, "Please listen everyone! There's a super villain on the loose. It doesn't seem to be attacking crowds however, everyone needs to get to the library or your classroom and barricade the doors and windows," Marinette's finger came off the button and she felt the weight of talking to a crowd lifted.

Of course it was way too soon for her to relax the crowd seemed to only ponder her words until the super villain she had referred to showed herself.

"You think that playing the hero is going to solve anything?" It's voice boomed. "I'm the scribe! Words are my weapon!"

The crowd started yelling when the super hero appeared on top of a overhang. "Please, everyone stay calm and get to the library!" Marinette yelled into the megaphone again. Marinette moved in the dercation that the crowd was going to keep telling them what to do. She figured it was the only way she was going to be helpful.

Even in all the screaming Marinette managed to pick out a singular voice call out her name. She turned and found her best friend rushing up to wrap her in a protective hug. "Marinette! Thank god you're okay!"

"You too, Alya!" Marinette said as she returned the hug. "But it's too early to be saying that right now," Alya nodded in agreement.

"I can post something to my blog and maybe Ladybug will come faster," Alya stated. Marinette wasn't going to discourage her but ladybug knowing there's an attack wasn't the problem right now. She watched as her friend glared at her phone.

"What's wrong?" Marinette wondered. Had Alya seen a news report about Ladybug and Co beaten on the other side of paris right now?

"I, someone's been posting on my blog, I can't log in," Alya said getting more and more uncomfortable. In a Moment of panic, Marinette passed the mega phone back to a teacher.

"Hey is, Is that Chloé?" Alya's voice echoed in Marinette's mind as her friend pointed to the courtyard where'd they'd come from.

She'd forgotten about Chloé.

 

The students filled the halls in a panic, and the Scribe thought that they'd make good targets. She had almost finished writing out the second 'b' in 'bomb' when she felt a small stone hit the back of her head. When the Scribe turned around she was face to face with Chloé.

"Hey! I'm the one you're after right?! So don't ignore me!" She snarled and the Scribe laughed. What did this girl think she was doing? But that was fine with the Scribe, if Chloé wanted her undivided attention the girl would get it in the worst way. Chloé's stance faltered when she saw the smile that had spread across the Scribe's face.

The other girl that had been with Chloé had run off trying to keep the crowds in line. What a leader, abandoning a few to save many, Scribe would be sure to go after her next after she's done with Chloé. "So tell me, Chloé? What words hurt the most?"

Chloé's face went from pure anger to confusion.

With a quick movement of the hand the Scribe had written "No one likes you," down and the paper folded up into a plane. Chloé had tried to run away from it when it came toward her but she wasn't fast enough. The Scribe laughed as she ran about the now empty courtyard.

More planes came in quick succession. "you're physically repulsive." "Your father is corrupt." "you're the worst kind of human." she was halfway through writing the next message when Chloé, just stopped. Didn't even fall over dead. Just stood there and let all the airplanes hit her again and again and again.The planes should hurt worse too because they were her inner thoughts.

"What do you think you're trying to prove?" The Scribe asked annoyed. She was vaguely aware of a loud gasp coming from her left but she would be giving her FULL attention to Chloé until she dropped dead from paper cuts if that's what it came too!

Chloé let out a pained laugh, "I'm a politician you know, words don't hurt me," The Scribe felt anger surge up at the idea that her attacks weren't working but then something tore her away from her victim.

 

Marinette and Alya had run down the hall when they had seen Chloé fighting the Akuma all by her own stupid self. Marinette was about make a grab for the nearest garden hose when Chloé had spoken.

'That's not how this works!' Marinette wanted to scream at the girl. But before she could act, before she could talk, Chloé was engulfed in flames. When they subsided they revealed another figure standing in front of Chloé, Marinette gasped when she saw Melodie, or at least the new girl who had Melodie's kwami.

Behind the Scribe Ladybug's Yo-yo came barreling down from a roof and hitting the Akuma in the head. "There you are foul beast!" Marinette recognized Bridgette's voice. "We will not forgive attacking civilians!" Ladybug and Cat Noir both jumped down and began to rush the Akuma.

Alya hadn't reacted quickly enough to get the first part on video, but her blogger persona had taken over in no time. Soon enough though, one of the heroes landed in front of them. He was in Mime's clothes Marinette noted. "You two need to get somewhere safe, away from the fighting!"

Marinette thought it was cute that the boy thought they had to protect her and Alya. Marinette alone had been fighting Akuma longer than their whole group combined. Alya must have made an equally annoyed face because the boy's shoulders slumped. "Please, at least you have to stay hidden," He pleaded. Okay that was fair, Marinette thought and she grabbed her friend and pulled her behind a bench.

"Hey Alya? Anymore luck with your blog?" Marinette asked when she saw her friend still tapping away on the screen of her phone.

"None, I think someone stole it from me," Alya said anger in her voice. Marinette would have to watch out for her because there was no way she'd be taking care of herself for the rest of the fight.

The fight was in their favor, Mime cut any plains the Scribe threw with his fan and Bridgette kept tossing her yo-yo at the akuma. At one point in the battle Scribe managed to grab it before Bridgette could pull it back, the akuma started pulling and she found the end eventually, Bridgette had to let go.

It didn't look like the fight was going to last much longer though. Their Sparrow had taken one end of Ladybug's Yo-yo and tied it around the Scribe and Bridgette used a paper clamp she must have gotten from Lucky charm to pick up the folder and rip it in half.

Soon enough Miraculous ladybug’s light flew over the school and all damage done in the battle was reversed. Chloé just decided to lay down where she had been standing in the middle of the fight and the group of heroes was getting ready to flee. (Now that Marinette was looking at the whole group she could see they had six people and not five. Who else were they carting around?)

Marinette stood and waved to the heroes as they left, she was so proud of her little sister for being so good with fighting already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Currently I'm working on art of the five main characters of this story, and I was wondering if anyone wanted to see them? as always thanks for reading :D


	7. Seven

The needle bobbed up and down into the fabric, leaving it's floss behind. Marinette sighed and had to stop with the embroidery she was working on.

"I told you so," Bridgette called from her bed. Marinette looked at her sister annoyed. Maybe she had been correct that Marinette really shouldn't have done hand embroidery on the dress, but she was not going to give her sister the satisfaction of being right. (And also it would ruin the dress if she were to stop halfway through.)

Adrian's birthday party was in two days, and Marinette was in all kinds of stress. (Not the least came from fighting back the old crush that had been bubbling up after going to school with him again for a month and a half.)

"I'm just taking a small break, I have all day to finish it," she informed her sister proudly. This time she turned to her own bed were Alya was currently laying around. She had come over because the dress she wanted to wear had been ripped in the wash. It had been a simple fix, but she hadn't gone home yet.

"Alya, what's up?" Marinette asked from the stairs to her bed.

"I still can't believe someone stole my blog!" Marinette grumbled. Alya had been on about this all month; the topic was getting old fast. Though Marinette had to admit she had liked it a lot better when the person running the Ladyblog was her best friend.

"Haven't you contacted the host site yet? Can't they do something?" Alya threw her phone down and it bounced on the bed.

"Nope, they need a bunch of proof that it was really mine, and that it was  _ really  _ hacked! I swear at this point I'm ready to just let the person have it," Bridgette shifted a little on her bed nervously. She wondered how Alya would take it to know that the hacker was her little sister.

"You can't give up fighting for what's yours though!" Marinette cheered trying to get her friend happy again.

"Why don't you take that energy of yours," Alya sat up and was scooting closer to Marinette. "And put it toward your embroidery!" she said giving Marinette a small shove down the stairs. Bridgette giggled behind her sketchbook when her sister barely managed to stay on her feet. Marinette's attention finally fell upon her.

"And what about you? Didn't you get an invitation to this high class gathering through one of your  _ male _ friends," Bridgette's face went red as a tomato as Alya cooed at Marinette's words.

"It! It's not l-like that! He gave them to everyone! Félix and I are just. Friends!" Bridgette was hiding her face by holding her sketchbook to it; she was sure she was going to have graphite on her nose when she stopped. ('With any luck they won't see it over your blush!' she thought to herself.)

"Aw! She's just like you when you were her age. Only she actually talks to her crush," Alya teased both of them. Marinette scoffed.

"I managed to hold at least two conversations with him!" she said in defence. She really needed to get away from this topic before Bridgette remembered that her crush is the host of the party they're going to. "Anyway Bridgette, have you chosen what you're going to wear? It's a black tie event, so I could lend you some of my old dresses." She was offering the dresses purely out of the goodness of her own soul, not to have another to show off to Adrian's father or anything.

"I have one!" Bridgette announced and then ran over to their shared closet. "This! You made it for my birthday last year and I haven't had a chance to wear it yet," Bridgette pulled out a pale blue sleeveless dress that stopped at her knees. Marinette remembered it instantly. She had made it to celebrate the fact Bridgette had stopped growing. (The younger refused to admit she'd be stuck so small for the rest of her life, but it was something that they were both going to have to live with.)

"Aw, Marinette your sibling's so nice! Can we trade?" Alya called down and Marinette laughed.

"Sure, I'll trade her for Gigi," Bridgette scoffed, she was worth way more than a loud five year old, she was sure of that much!

"Yes, yes, don't you have a dress to finish?" Bridgette interrupted them. Marinette groaned and picked up her work again.

Bridgette and Alya's laughing drowned out whatever Marinette would have heard outside the room. None were aware of the masked figure watching through the window, then again, he prided himself on his stealth even in the clothes he had to wear.

He had already confirmed what he needed to so he didn't stay around long. With a single leap he was gone. Marinette turned to the open window and listened to the wind, she could have sworn she'd seen something.

The next day was Friday, and as Marinette had learned, that meant Bridgette helped out with getting the bakery ready. (Marinette had been roped into helping on Thursdays, when Bridgette was always dead from Patrol in the morning.) But in her time sharing a room with her little sister she'd gotten used to the noise, so she was pleasantly surprised when the alarm that woke her up was her own for once.

Even if she'd been happy with the way she'd been woken up, without Tikki or Alya to talk to on the bus she was soon falling back asleep. She only barely made it out on the correct stop and that had put a damper on her mood.

She walked into the lecture hall for her first class of the day and looked around for Chloé. Marinette knew that talking to the girl was going to leave her with a massive headache, but she was curious how Chloé's dress was coming. eventually she saw the girl come in and waited for her to sit down on the other side of the room to go walk over.

"Good morning Chloé," Marinette said, her voice clearly reflecting her willingness to start a fight. Chloé looked at her but then decided it wasn't a good idea to reply. "I finished my dress last night, I'm sure that Mr. Agreste is going to love it," Marinette prodded even more.

Chloé finally took the bait. "Really? I can't believe you waited so long, I've been done all week," She replied. Marinette saw her opening and went for it.

"Hmm? Don't you think that Mr. Agreste would appreciate putting as much time into something as you could?" she countered.

"From my experiences with him I'd think Mr. Agreste would much rather have someone who doesn't push the deadlines for an apprentice," Chloé said and her face curled into a self satisfied smile. Marinette huffed and turned around, she wasn't going to let Chloé get the apprenticeship no matter what.

With that new resolve Marinette flew through all her classes. After all her classes were done she sat in the library, waiting for Alya's last class to get out so they could go home together. Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed Adrian himself walking into the library.

She shifted awkwardly, but then decided that she needed to put her silly crush on him behind her. So up she stood and walked over to the table where he had sat down. (It was even near the end of Alya's class so she could just make it look like she was leaving.)

"Happy birthday Adrian," She said standing over his table. He looked up at her blankly for a second before talking.

"Thanks Marinette. Are you going to be coming to the party?" He gestured for her to sit in the chair next to him and she complied.

"Yeah, I Wouldn't miss it for the world," Marinette answered. "though I was surprised that you sent me an invite."

"Oh yeah, everyone from our middle school got an invite. I've always wanted to have a party with you guys," His smile was so perfect, but for some reason it put Marinette on edge more than it melted her heart. It was the same thing Chloé pulled on her so much.

"It'll be like a reunion, that will be so awesome," Marinette replied. "It's good because I've only really been in contact with Alya and Chloé lately,"

Adrian Scoffed. "Chloé has not grown up at all since we were seven," Marinette had to disagree with that statement, recently Chloé had been almost tolerable.

Marinette looked down at her phone and pretended to be shocked at the time. "Oh! It looks like Alya's class is about to get out, I'm going to meet her. It was fun talking with you, Adrian," She said and he gave her a glare she couldn't read.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see you tomorrow," Marinette waved to him as she fled the library. What was it Chloé had said about Adrian on her first day here? That he was  _ different?  _ Marinette sighed, she'd have to agree.

Soon enough (Or maybe all too quickly for Marinette,) Tom Dupain was dropping both his daughters off in front of the Grand Paris Hotel. Marinette leaned into the car and gave her father a peck on the cheek as thanks for driving them. Beside her Bridgette shifted nervously pulling at the hem of her dress.

"What's up?" Marinette asked her sister.

"I just, feel like I'm under dressed," Marinette looked around at the crowd, No one else was in a dress the cut off before the knees and most of the women had on some kind a jacket.

She gave her sister's hand a tight squeeze to give her comfort. "Don't worry most of these guys will regret wearing so much when we're all crammed into one room," Bridgette laughed at her sister's words.

When the two girls entered the hotel they were shepherded into the smaller ballroom, and when they arrived they could see they were not the first. The room was full of older business types and university students, Bridgette felt entirely out of place like this.

"Marinette! Long time no see," A voice broke out over the calm background music and other conversations. Bridgette looked to her left and found a girl in a flowy pink dress and white shawl running over to greet her sister.

"Ah! Rose! Long time no see," Marinette said as she opened her arms for a hug from the girl. Bridgette shifted uncomfortably looking for her own friends in the crowd.

"Oh goodness Marinette, it's been so long how are you?" Rose said when the two girls pulled apart.

"I'm doing fine, I tried going to another university out of the city, but I wound up coming back," Marinette said. 'That's one way of putting it,' Bridgette quipped in her head. apparently rolling her eyes was too much movement because Rose then turned to her.

"Oh! Who's this?" She asked happily. Bridgette puffed her chest out proudly and replied before Marinette could.

"My name's Bridgette Dupain Cheng, It's nice to meet you," she said and held her hand out. Rose took it.

"Nice to meet you Bridgette, I'm Rose. I went to middle school with your sister," Rose turned back to Marinette. "Do you want to sit at the table with me? Julka and Alix are already there!" Marinette was about to say yes when she looked back at her sister, not wanting to abandon her.

Bridgette shoved her sister toward her old friend, "Don't worry about me, Emma and the others are around. I'll find them," Marinette nodded and walked off with Rose chatting about something.

Bridgette's eyes darted around the room, there were tables off to the walls, the streamers looked like they had been hung in a rush and people stood around on the dance floor talking. None of the people she saw were any of her friends so she thought it would be a good idea to move more toward the tables.

"Bridgette! Over here!" She heard a voice call and had never been happier to hear her name in an unfamiliar crowd. She turned to find Emma beckoning her over to a table in the corner. She saw someone she didn't recognize and Louis at the table.

"Hey Emma! I love your dress," Bridgette said as the girls sat down. Emma's dress was gold with a black chest and it also happend to cut off just before the knees, so Bridgette wasn't alone there.

"Yeah! I love yours too!" Emma replied without a care in the world. The unfamiliar boy that had been sitting with them stood up and held out his hand over the table.

"Hi I'm Max, Louis's paternal cousin, It's a pleasure to meet all of his friends," Bridgette smiled and took his hand. everyone in Louis's family was really nice.

"My name's Bridgette, it's nice to meet you!" Then Bridgette brought her hand to her mouth and acted like louis couldn't hear her. "Do you have any embarrassing baby photos of him?"

"Oh come on!" Louis burst from where he was sitting and Emma started laughing, Max let out an awkward chuckle himself.

"You've got a great set of friends buddy," Max said and ruffled Louis's hair as he sunk down in his chair.

"Yeah, sometimes I have to remind myself of that when they don't act like it," he said as he locked eyes with Bridgette, who stuck out her tongue in reply.

"Hey so where are Hugo and Félix then?" Bridgette asked Emma after she broke eye contact with the grumpy boy.

"Félix's sister needed help moving something so she dragged Félix off and Hugo doesn't understand that sometimes people don't want his help," Emma recited. "Actually that was a little while ago, they should be back soon,"

Max seemed very interested in Bridgette's shoulder and she flinched when she caught him staring. He shook his head in surprise when he realized what he was doing. "Sorry," he started. "it's just, Did Marinette make that dress?" Bridgette's eyes widened in shock.

"Huh? Yeah she did, she's my sister so a lot of my clothes were made by her," That's when she remembered that Marinette had put her signature on the left strap of her dress.

"Really? I used to go to school with her, is she here?" He asked. Bridgette chuckled. It seemed Marinette was a lot more popular than she had ever let on. "Yeah she was dragged to a table down that way by a girl named Rose," Bridgette said as she waved her hand in the general direction her sister had gone.

Max got up from the table and said he'd be back soon, Louis called good luck after him as he braved the crowd. Bridgette leaned on the table and blew a piece of her hair out of her face. Louis had folded his arms and was resting his head in them. Emma shifted and slipped a bit of apple to Bebbe who was in her clutch purse.

"Hey you guys wanna go look for Hugo and Félix?" Emma finally asked.

"Yeah, that sounds better than hanging out here," Louis said and Bridgette nodded in agreement.

"Let's look in the hall," Bridgette started. "It's getting stuffy in here anyway,"

The three friends got up and started to leave the room. Emma glared at the business men that looked at them and Louis made jokes about what everyone was wearing. Bridgette looked around, she spotted a single boy that had a bunch of college kids talking around him. She heard the name Adrian float over from that area of the room and figured it was good to have the main host identified.

When the three of them slipped out into the hall the noise level dropped significantly. They managed to locate their friends fast enough. They had been down the hall with Félix's sister and another girl.

Hugo waved them over when he spotted them and they all gathered around him, Félix seemed to be busy listening to his sister and the other girl make plans for how to move the cake. They agreed and went to work on their plans.

Félix apparently hadn't noticed that his whole friend group was present because his eyes widened with shock when he turned around right into Bridgette. She caught the both of them before they fell though.

"Woah, you okay?" She asked with her hands still on his shoulders. When he looked at her his face flushed and that alone was enough to cause Bridgette to flush. Bridgette was the first to move quickly removing her hands from him when she realized what she was doing. He quickly tried to stammer out an apology and nearly called her Ladybug in the process, the two older women had left to go get something though.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" Louis chanted from behind them and Bridgette froze while Félix turned away in panic. The other three were laughing at their friends.

"Hey Félix, I could use a hand over here," Nathalie called to her brother. "Did I miss something?" She asked when she saw how red her little brother was.

"No! What do you need help with?" his voice was shaking and he could still hear his friends laughing at him.

"The cake for the party was dropped off in the kitchen, we need help moving it from the counter to a cart," The other girl said. She was wearing a black dress with gold highlights and looked more like a party goer than an organizer though the clipboard in her hand said otherwise. Still she gave off an air of leadership. "It's more than a two person job,"

Nathalie turned to her, "Thank you for all your help Miss. Bourgeois, you should go back to the party now. I wouldn't want to take away from your time with your friends," Bridgette knew the girl, She was the Chloé that her sister was always talking about up staging.

Chloé gave a big smile to Nathalie, "It's quite alright. My father left me in charge of the hotel for the night, I want to make sure everything goes smoothly in his absence," They had all started walking into the kitchen where the cake and cart were. "And besides, Adrian is," She paused. "Adrian's an old friend of mine, I want his party to go perfectly."

"You seem nice," Emma commented as she fought with her clutch purse where Bebbe was. Chloé laughed in response.

"Then you obviously haven't spent enough time with me; you just need to get the cake onto the cart I'll take it in after that," She moved the cart closer to the counter, it was a few inches shorter than the counter top.

That didn't scare Bridgette though, she'd lived in a bakery her whole life, and she'd been putting on arm muscle since she'd been Ladybug too! She, Félix, Hugo and Nathalie all moved the cake while the other three spotted them.

"Alright, I'll take this into the ballroom now," Chloé announced when they put it down. "You can stay here if you want," Emma looked over her friends and none of them looked too tired.

"Nah, we'll walk back with you," she said, no one really seemed to protest this either.

"I'm going to check on some other things, have fun Fi," Nathalie said before typing a number into her phone and leaving the kitchen.

The walk back was mostly quiet, and over before anyone had a chance to start a conversation. When they got to the doors that led into the ballroom, Chloé stopped pushing to open the door to the room. She passed the cake off to the head chef to cut and soon enough most of the party was eating.

Bridgette and her friends had returned to Max's table to find him sitting with some of his friends. The table was full and the conversation was pleasant. Bridgette learned that the other boy was named Kim and the girl was Julka. Kim wanted to play sports professionally and Julka was currently studying Makeup at the local university. Max was pursuing a statistics degree himself.

"What about you buddy?" Max asked Louis. "Do you know what you want to do with your life?" Louis slumped even further into his seat than he'd already been.

"Most of the time I just want to sleep," The table started laughing at his statement, though he didn't understand why; he'd been completely serious.

"It's fine to not know what you want to do, after all you're just children right now," Julka said. It annoyed Félix but he felt Emma glaring at him not to start a fight. "Just do what you think is fun and you'll find something you want to do,"

"I have something I want to do!" Louis sat up and burst.

"Oh?" Max leaned a little closer to his cousin. "And what's that?" Panic flitted across Louis's eyes and Bridgette immediately understood what it meant, he'd been talking about being super heroes.

"It's a secret, right?" Bridgette threw a life line to Louis and he was more than ready to grab it.

"Yep! Secret!" he replied and the rest of the group now knew what they were talking about. The older group looked over the laughing kids in confusion, but decided not to push anything.

Their laughter was interrupted by the clanking of silverware on glass. It had been the party's main host, Adrian Agrest that had made the noise. After the whole room quieted down he cleared his throat. 

“Thank you everyone for coming tonight, it’s been a great birthday party,” Adrian paused awkwardly as the older attendees clapped for him. Then he bit his lip and considered what to say. “Although nothing is ever going to top my first birthday party,”

There were a few bursts of loud laughter around the room, and the older students at Bridgette’s table had been part of it. Emma locked eyes with Louis trying to figure out what was funny.

“Anyway,” Adrian kept going, he’d been laughing too. “This has been a great night and I wanted to dedicate the toast to the two people who made it all happen.”  He raised a wine glass full of water. “Nathalie Sancoeur and Chloé Bourgeois,”

At the table Hugo was trying to get Félix’s attention at the mention of his sister, Félix was trying to communicate that he knew. Emma picked up a paper cup off the table and toast with the older students and Louis.

Bridgette was still watching as the party’s host was interacting with other people, the noise had picked up so she couldn’t hear what he was saying anymore. She watched as Chloé walked over to him and they had their polite exchanges, although she could tell from their body movements that neither of them wanted to be talking to each other.

Bridgette thought that their interaction was over and was about to turn around, when she saw Adrian rather blatantly loop his foot around Chloé’s leg. The woman was sent tumbling to the ground.

The room’s attention turned back to the center of the room when the gasps rang out, followed by a loud rip and then the shattering of glass. 

“Oh my god, is she okay?” Emma said from Bridgette’s side. Adrian held out his hand to pick her up probably asking her the same question, but Chloé pushed herself off the ground, dress obviously ruined, and ran out of the room.   


	8. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter and last were originally supposed to be one, but then Seven got too long so I split them up. ^_^"

> _ Melodie had been the first one Ladybug met after Cat. So, sadly this meant she had also been the only one that Ladybug didn’t trust at first. That had really been a shame because Melodie was one of the nicest people Ladybug had ever met.  _
> 
> _ She wasn’t shy or timid, she just didn’t talk to them very much. She knew that Ladybug and Cat Noir had been a team for a long time,and did her best to stay out of their way. Even so she joined in the fight against the akuma in her own way, Marinette still remembered being in the audience of one of her concerts. Soon after that, Melodie joined the normal fights too.  _

Marinette had turned around just in time to see Adrian trip   Chloé and ruin her dress. Maybe it hadn’t been his fault the dress ripped and maybe he had no idea how important the dress was to her. But Marinette felt anger surging up inside her anyway.

Adrian was talking with Nathanaël and they already seemed to have moved on from  Chloé’s dramatic exit. Marinette stormed over and started yelling at her old crush from behind.

“That was rude!” She said loud enough to come off as forceful in the noisy room. He turned to her, confused look on his face, she didn’t even give him time to reply. “You need to apologize to her, at the very least for the dress!” 

“I didn’t do anything, she tripped on her own high heels,” Adrian replied to Marinette smoothly, but was clearly lying. Marinette looked at him one last time before turning to chase after  Chloé.

She didn’t know what she was going to say when she found her classroom rival, but at least she knew where her room was in the hotel.

> _ Ladybug was frustrated. The whole team had been formed a while ago, Sparrow and Mime joined at the same time. (Sometimes Melodie or Cat Noir would ask them if they knew each other in real life because they were so in sync. They would always look at each other and shrug.) Now they were fighting an akuma and it was after none other than the mayor’s daughter. At least it was mostly for her position and not something she’d said for once.  _
> 
> _ Melodie had not shown up yet but they managed to find  Chloé in her room, top floor two left turns from the elevator. They told her what was going on and that they needed to keep an eye on her. It wasn’t the first time the superhero team had to watch her but it was the first time she reacted so negatively to it. _

Marinette turned the last corner to the private rooms where the mayor and his daughter lived. when she got to  Chloé’s room, she found she was not the only one who had left the party to check on the blonde girl. 

Marinette found Sabrina standing in front of the doors, debating whether or not to knock. Marinette walked over and spoke. 

“Hey, I’m glad I’m not the only one in that party with a conscience,” She said and Sabrina jumped. 

“She fell on glass, I just want to make sure she’s not bleeding out,” The redhead replied. 

“Yeah, that’s why you were hesitating outside her room,” Marinette shot and the other girls cheeks turned red in embarrassment. “Come on, let’s go make sure she’s okay,” Marinette said and knocked on the door. 

Sabrina jumped at the noise and hid behind the hall table, Marinette rolled her eyes. “ Chloé, open up I know you’re in there!” She yelled.

The door jerked like someone was opening it and  Chloé eventually opened just enough to look at the other girl. “Why are you here?” She asked defensively. There was a bite behind her words.

“I don’t want to be in a party full of people who would laugh at someone falling down,” Marinette stated and leaned over to pull Sabrina back into  Chloé’s view. “And she wanted to make sure that you weren’t hurt! Let us in please?” 

Sabrina had stopped vocally protesting and had sort of just let Marinette drag her.  Chloé looked the both of them over and opened her door wide enough for her guests to walk through. 

Chloé had only turned a few lights on so the room felt dark. But even in the dim lighting Sabrina had been able to see  Chloé was holding a rag in her hands. “You cut your hand,” She said.

Chloé looked at her grip around the towel. “It’s not that deep. Don’t worry I’m taking care of it,” She opted to say.

Sabrina’s face knit into a frown, “Let me do that, I’m studying to be a nurse,” She ran to grab the open first aid kit  Chloé had been using.  Chloé scowled when Sabrina beat her to it.

“Why are you being nice to me? Both of you.” Sabrina rolled her eyes and signaled for  Chloé to sit down next to her.

“I was only ever really mad at you back in middle school. We were friends long before that,  Chloé,” she said simply.

“I was more worried about your dress,” Marinette stated and both girls looked at her,  Chloé in confusion and Sabrina in annoyance. “It was fun having a rival in dressmaking, and Adrian ruined your chance to get the apprenticeship,” 

Chloé pulled her hand away when Sabrina finished tying the bandage. “Thanks I guess, you don’t have to stay,” She said harshly. A glimpse of yellow caught Marinette’s eye as she ignored  Chloé’s comment. 

“Where are you going?”  Chloé asked annoyed as Marinette ran to the other end of the room to pull something out of  Chloé’s closet. Sabrina hid a giggle behind her hand. 

Marinette pulled the dress out and looked at it. The rip had been along one of the seams down the front, and Marinette’s seamstress mind was already at work.

> _ As Ladybug became more and more well known she was invited to many fancy events. She would only ever go to the ones that invited the rest of her team though, and even then they rarely went to any. All five of them had only gone to one as a team. _
> 
> _ Sparrow had really wanted to go to this one. “It’ll be lots of fun we can wear fancy clothes that match our suits!” She cheered and spun around pretending that her coat was a dress. Melodie laughed and complied when Sparrow tried to get her to dance too.  _
> 
> _ That was how Marinette wound up stressing over finishing a dress while also hiding said dress and any evidence of said dress from her family and friends. Tikki had been a great help and the dress looked beautiful over Ladybug’s normal spandex when she was done.  _
> 
> _ At the fundraiser she eventually found the rest of her team. Cat hadn’t done anything different and when she bugged him about it he said it was his kwami’s fault. (She didn’t really want to know much more than that.) Mime had pulled a dress shirt over his costume and when Ladybug questioned him he joked that it was more than Cat.  _
> 
> _ The girls had put more effort in what they were wearing, Sparrow had actually taken off her coat to get a green sleeveless dress over her suit.(Although the cloth that covered her mouth was still present.) Melodie’s dress had been Yellow with black stripes here and there. When Ladybug complemented her outfit, she’d said it was hand made. _

Marinette took a look over  Chloé’s dress, not sure why it had sparked such memories. Melodie’s dress had reflected her passion in everything she did,  Chloé’s simply reflected it’s creator’s need to be on top.

“Do you have a sewing machine around here? I could have this fixed up in five minutes,” Marinette finally asked,  Chloé had walked over to the closet and turned another light on as she went. 

“You don’t need to do that, I’m not going back to that party,”  Chloé replied. “The staff can handle the rest of the night.”

“I know I don’t need to,” Marinette said in a fake happy voice, the kind she had learned from  Chloé, “I want to! Out of the goodness of my heart and the strength of our friendship!” 

The next thing Marinette did was gather the dress up in her hands and duck under  Chloé. “Marinette Dupain Cheng!”  Chloé shrieked as Sabrina was still trying not to laugh at the whole mess. 

Marinette found where  Chloé kept her sewing machine and right as she was about to sit down and thread it, she heard the faint sound of a bell. It didn’t seem too far out of place in all the faint sounds the hotel produced so Marinette wondered why it stuck out to her so much. 

“Get, out,”  Chloé said again, this time much more forcefully. Sabrina stood up and walked over to the other girls. “Both of you get out of my room!”  Chloé yelled and shoved them out the door. 

Marinette had dropped the dress in the process of being shoved and in the back of her mind wondered when  Chloé had gotten so strong. After  Chloé had locked the door on the both of them Marinette turned back and started knocking. 

“Hey! What the heck  Chloé! Let us back in!” Marinette yelled in frustration. She thought she’d finally gotten through to her too. Sabrina looked at the door disappointed and turned to walk away. 

“Go away or I’ll call security!”  Chloé yelled from somewhere deep inside her room. Marinette would have kept going. (Or maybe she would have stopped anyway, she didn’t know how much time she was willing to give  Chloé.) But she heard a shriek coming from downstairs. 

Having spent a good portion of her life as a superhero it was hard to fight the urge to run toward all the screaming and not away from it. Marinette ran right past the elevator opting to run down the stairs. She sort of regretted the decision when she finally hit the bottom level, winded. 

She knew the fighting noises were coming from the ballroom where the party was, and from the sounds of it, it had been an akuma attack. As she rounded the corner to head toward the fighting she wound up running into Tikki. 

“Bridgette! Over here!” TIkki yelled when she identified Marinette. Bridgette came running down the hall when the kwami told her to.

“Okay Tikki, what’s your plan?” Bridgette asked. Marinette needed to confirm a few things before they went into that though.  

“Slow down, what’s happening?” Marinette asked her little sister. 

“There was an akuma in the ballroom! My team’s holding him off but he’s stronger than any of the ones we’ve faced, he’s got a white suit and green eyes-”

Marinette didn’t hear anything else her sister said, but it didn’t matter.

> _ The patrol had started out normal enough, Cat Noir was late but Melodie and Mime both seemed to think that he’d show up soon enough. Ladybug wasn’t looking forward to his whining that they’d left without him but they couldn’t wait any longer.  _
> 
> _ It was Sparrow who got nervous about his absence first. She wanted to call off the patrol and go looking for him instead. Melodie was insistent that something in his normal life had come up and that he was fine. Mime had decided that the choice should fall to Ladybug because she had known him the longest. _
> 
> _ Ladybug reasoned with Melodie that if they didn’t go, Sparrow was just going to go looking by herself. the two girls looked at the other, who just gave a sheepish smile. Ladybug was right. _
> 
> _ They looked all night, but didn’t find anything, Ladybug was also starting to get nervous, Cat wasn’t picking up his phone, and that meant that he was ignoring them, not transformed or, Ladybug shuttered at the thought, he couldn’t transform for some reason.  _
> 
> _ Mime stopped the group in front of the Notre Dam, uncomfortably close to the Bakery for Ladybug’s taste. He was trying to call the search off, saying that they were panicking over nothing. That Cat was probably fine.  _
> 
> _ As he said those words though, the eerie noise of a bell filled all their ears and they turned their attention to the river. _
> 
> _ The image of what she saw that night will always be burned into her mind. Cat was no longer Cat Noir from that night on. _

“Chat Blanc,” She finished for her sister who was explaining everything in a panic. Marinette turned to her kwami. “So why were you guys looking for me?” 

“You’re both going to be needed, for that to work you have to transform together.” The kwami explained. Bridgette moved to take off her earrings but the kwami stopped her. “No, you just have to say it at the same time,” 

There was a crash down the hall. “Hurry!” Tikki instructed the sisters. They looked at each other and nodded.

“Tikki, Spots on!” They called in perfect sync, and Tikki flew into Bridgette’s earrings. The two were encased in light and when it was gone they stood in their similar but distinct uniforms. 

Neither of them wasted time running down the hall to get back to the ballroom. as they ran Tikki gave them one last piece of information for the fight. 

“Make sure that you don’t get too far from Bridgette, Marinette! She’s the one with the Miraculous so your transformation will wear off if you split up!”

“Got it Tikki,” Marinette replied. She’d been on an adrenalin high since they transformed. It felt like it had been forever since she’d done that. though she knew it had been less than a year.

When they got to the ballroom the doors were open and Marinette took it as a chance to slip in, dragging Bridgette behind her. The guests that had been caught in the crossfire of the battle were gathered in the back corner of the room and their Melodie had used her Lance to create a firewall between the guests and the akuma. 

Their Sparrow was hiding in a sniping position, Marinette noted as Bridgette signaled frantically for him to keep quiet. She guessed that he was surprised to see two Ladybugs. Marinette then turned her eyes to what she had wanted to avoid looking at.

Chat Blanc was standing in the center of the room glaring at Melodie from across the fire wall. Seeing him right then sent every emotion Marinette had ever felt pounding through her head. 

> _ They had told themselves the first fight with Chat Blanc had gone so poorly because they had refused to fight their friend. They didn’t have that excuse the second time. Chat Blanc teased them, informing them with an evil glee about how he had destroyed his own Miraculous, killing his kwami. (later that night when Marinette was home she heard the soft tears of Tikki, apparently she’d been close with Plagg.) _
> 
> _ It was their third and final fight that ended really badly. Their stage was rather high up on the Eiffel Tower, with four against one it was only a matter of time before Chat Blanc lost. However by the end of the fight everyone was winded.  _
> 
> _ Ladybug held out her hand in annoyance, “Give me the akuma Cat!” She yelled. She really just wanted her friend back. _
> 
> _ The possessed super hero clutched at the bell on his collar and hissed at her. He was the only one the fight had left on their knees.  _
> 
> _ “Hand it over!” Melodie yelled from behind Ladybug.  _
> 
> _ None of the heroes could have reacted in time to stop what happened next. Chat had been scooting away from them as they had been moving closer, now he could jump off the edge with no problem. _
> 
> _ Ladybug Screamed but she didn’t have time to react childishly because Mime had thrown himself after Cat. She grabbed him by the waist so that she didn’t lose two friends to gravity in one night.  _
> 
> _ they had all been teary eyed, but the absence of a news report about a dead body under the Eiffel Tower left them all with the same conclusion, Cat Noir was still alive.   _

When Marinette laid eyes on the back of his head, when she saw that he was still in those stupid white clothes, that he still had the bell, she couldn’t keep all her rage contained.

“Stop where you are! You foul beast!” She yelled as she jumped over the cover she had been sharing with her sister.

Bridgette cursed at her sister for giving away where they were, before following suit. 

When they were out from under cover Bridgette finally managed to locate Mime and Cat, they were on the floor unconscious. Seeing that set her off. She was now as angry as her sister if not more so. “I’ll skin you! Come here you feline menace!” 

But Chat Blanc didn’t care about the younger one finding new and creative cat related insults to throw at him. He’d locked eyes with Marinette.

“Fancy meeting you here, my Lady,” He said in a suave tone that did little to hide the anger that fueled the akuma. The older Ladybug held out her arm to keep her sister from jumping the enemy, it seemed that was how her two friends wound up on the floor. 

“What are you doing here? After all this time?” She asked calmly, but her other hand was resting on her yo-yo.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He said teasingly, moving only a step closer to the two heroes. Both now had their similar weapons readied. “But you just have to tell me! Who is this, little Lady?” He asked with his eyes on Bridgette. 

“I’m the one who’s gonna knock your teeth in!” Bridgette yelled and tried to lunge at him again. Marinette did nothing to stop her. 

With a single flick of his bell Chat Blanc sent the younger ladybug toppling to the ground clutching her head. He gave her an evil smirk.

“What spunk. Kid, I’ve been at this way longer than-” He was cut off in the middle of his sentence. When Bridgette looked up she saw that he’d been hit with a tranquilizer dart. Her Kneeling must have cleared Sparrow’s shot.

Chat Blanc was not amused at this development. He pulled out the dart and dropped it on the floor. “Okay,” He started, no longer doing anything to hide the rage in his voice. “Which one of you twirps was that?” 

Mime had woken up and was now trying to move Cat Noir away from the over powered akuma. He jumped when the angry gaze fell on the two of them. 

Melodie raised her lance and pointed it straight at him, she was letting the fire wall fall a little but he wasn’t going to move if he was right in her line of fire. 

The smaller Ladybug was still kneeling on the ground with the string from her yo-yo wrapped around her hand.

That must have been when it clicked in Chat Blanc’s head; the one that was missing was Sparrow. He looked up and located the last hero. “Think you can hide in your nest?” He snarled and jumped, avoiding the smaller Ladybug’s attempt to stop him. 

He almost made it, but it’s very hard to defend yourself in mid air and someone had drop kicked him back into the ground. He’d been a fool to forget about his Lady. 

“I will ask you again,” She said when she landed right next to him. “Why would you come here, after so long in hiding?”    

He sat up from the ground, he could feel whatever was in the dart take effect. “If you really want to know,” He started. “I was hear to acquire Miss. Kubdel’s prized family heirloom,”

Marinette looked to the (completely charred) corner of the room to see Alix, clutching the pocket watch in question. Sparrow had moved from the high up point he’d been to stand guard over the guests with Melodie. 

Marinette turned attention back to Chat. “Why on earth would you want that?” She demanded out of him.

He struggled up to his feet, clearly feeling the effects of the tranquilizer. “Sorry my Lady, but that’s about all I can tell you. If it makes you feel any better the tomboy can keep her damn pocket watch. I don’t need it that badly,” and with that he turned to take his leave.

“Where do you think you’re going Cat Noir!” Ladybug yelled after him as she came running. She was much faster than Chat was right now.

“Don’t call me that,” He muttered angrily and gave his bell one last flick. Everyone else in the room started to feel dizzy. 

When Bridgette woke up it was because of Cat Noir shoving her shoulder. “Ladybug! Hey Ladybug!” he called. 

She shot up when her mind started working with the rest of her body again. “Where is Chat Blanc?” She asked him quickly.

“I don’t know, when I woke up everyone else was out cold,” He explained. Ladybug looked around the room. She was the last of the team he’d woken up, everyone else was checking to see if the guests that had also passed out were okay. In a panic she turned her head and looked for her sister. 

Marinette had collapsed by the door and Bridgette scrambled over to her sister. “Hey Sis! Get up! We have to go after the akuma!” 

Marinette had done a much better job of waking up than Bridgette, “Do you know where he went?” She asked.

Bridgette bit her tongue and looked down. “Well, no,” She started.

“Then we shouldn’t bother, he’s probably gone back into hiding,” Marinette informed her.

“But we can’t just let an akuma run free in the city!” Bridgette protested. Marinette signaled to her little sister to keep her voice down. 

At that point most of the room had woken up and Alya of all people was walking over. “You, you’re,” She started. Marinette stood up and gave her best friend the biggest, most professional smile she could manage. “You’re our Ladybug aren’t you?” She asked with a small smile on her face.

“I’ve always been a Ladybug of the people,” she evaded the question but then felt bad when Alya’s face fell. “But yes, I’m the one that nearly let you get sacrificed to the gods,” 

Bridgette shifted at her sister’s side, “Sis!” she said and pulled on her arm. Marinette gave her a scowl.

“Why don’t you use your Lucky Charm? We’re going to have to leave soon anyway,” Bridgette hesitated but eventually listened to her older sister. 

“Lucky Charm!” She said and threw her yo-yo in the air like she’d done many times before, but something happened that hadn’t ever happened before. Her yo-yo was the only thing that came back down, she knew she’d actually used it too because she heard the beep that let her know she only had five minutes left.   

“What’s this supposed to mean?” She asked.

“It means that the fights over, and there’s only one thing left to do,” Marinette replied. Bridgette sighed, she didn’t want to admit that the fight was over without beating the akuma but she didn’t know what she’d expected Lucky Charm to do anyway. She nodded at her sister at threw her yo-yo up once again.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” The magic washed over the room fixing damage caused by akuma and heroes alike. And then washed over the people fixing all the physical harm they’d taken in the battle. (Much to a certain Cat Noir’s releaf.)

After that Marinette and Bridgette ducked out of the room, the transformation had barely lasted a minute and a half after Bridgette had used her finishing move. They both felt the magic wearing off the second they stepped outside the room. 

Soon enough they were waiting on the steps of the hotel for their father to come pick them up. (He’d insisted when he’d heard that the party had been attacked.) Marinette was holding Tikki in her hands, holding two transformations for so long had really worn her out. 

Bridgette turned to watch the people pile out of the hotel. She managed to see Félix exit the building just in time for his sister to throw her arms around him. She must have been looking for him in the attack. He hugged her back and eventually she pulled away and started scolding him. 

Bridgette let out a small laugh, “What’s up Bridgette?” Marinette asked from her side. 

“Nothing,” Bridgette respond. “I’m just glad that everyone made it out of this relatively okay.”

“Me too,” Marinette agreed and went back to looking for their father’s car in the mess of police and civilians.  

  
  



	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being so late with this update, schools been hitting me hard and I haven't had the time to write that I used to. ^_^" Hope you enjoy anyway!

“I’ve got it!” Sparrow yelled as he crashed to the ground, curled around the infected Item of the akuma.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Melodie ran over to check on their friend.

“Never mind me, deal with this!” Sparrow said and threw the scarf at Melodie. She only barely managed to catch it.

“How am I supposed to brake this?” She yelled and ran away before the akuma could get his item back. He tried to chase after the hero, but Sparrow managed to trip him.

“Over here!” Cat Noir yelled to get her attention, but what was he planning on doing? He’d already used Cataclysm this fight. She needed to keep the scarf moving though, so she bunched it up and threw it at her friend.

“Mime! Hey!” Cat yelled when he caught it and spread it as wide as his arms would allow. The other boy didn’t realize what their kitten wanted for a second, but it clicked soon enough.

“Full Mastery!” He yelled and went to cut the scarf in half with a long sword. (Of course he’d been careful to make it just long enough to not hit Cat Noir in the face.) Cat Noir dropped both pieces when they were cut and soon enough the little butterfly revealed itself.

“Finally,” Their leader grumbled and stood up from where she had been sitting on the roof. “No more evil doing for you, little akuma!” She yelled as she jumped down and threw her yo-yo at the black butterfly. “Time to de-evilize!”   

The team cheered when she caught the akuma and released it once more. “Bye bye little butterfly,” She said much quieter than she’d yelled the rest of the words her kwami had taught her.

Mime had gone to check on the victim of the akuma, and sent them on their way.

Cat Noir watched the girl as her eyes followed the butterfly until it was indistinguishable from any other star in the sky. He loved the way her eyes lit up when she helped someone out of Hawkmoth’s control. He hadn’t seen her so happy to be doing it since the fight at  Agreste ’s party.

After she used Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage of the battle, (Mostly just the poor boy’s scarf.) she remembered something and turned to their honorary 6th member, the little reporter that they kept around. Of course they had not told her that they knew who she really was, Madeleine, the girl a grade below them at their school.

“Are you going to be able to get back to your house by yourself? We all used our finishing moves!” Ladybug said in a rushed voice. “If you don’t mind waiting like 20 minutes I could recharge my Miraculous and come get you-”

Maddie cut her off, “Yeah, I’m fine. But like you said you all used your finishing moves, by my count Sparrow’s only got half a minute left.” The Hero in question bent down to check his anklet and cursed when he saw how much time he had left. So Maddie was right on that count. “So I’m just going to take my leave, you all did great tonight!” She said before turning around and running away, black cape fluttering in the breeze.

The group ducked behind the abandoned building to wait out their transformations.

Hugo was the last one to release his, when he checked his watch the time read 9:00pm. “Are you guys sure we should have left Maddie alone at this time of night?” He voiced.

“What do you suggest that we do about it?” Emma asked him as she gently put Bebbe into her bag, the kwami was normally tired after battles.

“Don’t worry, Maddie’s only a year younger than us, she’ll be fine. She’s not a kid anymore,” Bridgette said and looked down. Tikki giggled from her shoulder.

“It sounds like you're sad about that,” she teased her partner. Bridgette let out a small laugh as the group started walking back to their homes. They weren’t too far away, but they still had a bit of a walk together before they had to split up.

“I guess I am a little,” Bridgette started. “When we were smaller she, Manon and I would always play house, she was always my child and I had to look after her,” She smiled at the fond memories.

“So who was Manon?” Emma asked.

“Manon was my husband, we were playing house after all,” Bridgette said still basking in the happiness of the memories, unaware of the bomb she’d just set off.

Félix had jumped at the words but he didn't say anything, he just stared at his feet and hoped that no one would notice his reaction. But he had the worst luck of the group so of course everyone noticed.

“Do you have something you want to add to this conversation Félix?” Emma asked, her tone implying that she knew exactly what was going on his head. She probably did too.

“No!” He said forcefully, and that had been his mistake; the group had long since realized that his one word answers were more often than not lies.

Bridgette had also realized what she had said and what kind of reaction it had sparked from her crush and was busy blushing up her own storm.

“Aw, our kitten’s jealous of an eight-year-old Manon!” Hugo joked and Félix wanted to fade into the night and never show his face in public again.

“I am not!” He said a little louder than he needed to.  

“Uh, well it wasn’t really like that! We had two older kids and a younger kid so that’s how it worked out, y’know …” she mumbled the last sentence so that no one could hear her.

“What was that?” Louis asked as he skipped to the front of the group where Bridgette was walking.

“Well I mean there was one time we both got a little into it and we kissed,” The whole group gasped and Félix continued to look at his shoes so no one could see him blush. (Even if he’d already failed on that front.)  Bridgette stuttered at the reaction she had received. “But we were like seven or eight! That kind of kiss doesn't really count!”

“I bet Félix is really jealous of eight-year-old Manon now,” Louis called.

“Yeah totally,” Emma agreed and Félix wished he could dig his chin deeper into his chest.

“Okay you guys, that’s enough picking on them,” Hugo called that line of conversation off, sparing his two friends.

“Heh, the topic wouldn’t be nearly as sore as it is if they’d just start dating already!” Emma announced and walked a little faster to match Bridgette and Louis. Bridgette made a squeaking noise in reply and Félix nearly fell over.  

“I’m sorry, what?” Was all the boy managed to say.

“Well, I’m on Emma’s side in this,” Louis started and both Bridgette and Félix felt like they were drowning. “I mean you both know that you like the other and the other likes you,”

Félix had never been happier to see the random street sign that meant it was his point to turn off from the group.

“I, uh, This is my turn. Talk to you later.” He said and pushed past his friends to head home.

He heard Bridgette call a weak ‘Yeah sure’ after him while Emma shouted something like ‘Wimp!’. He looked back for a moment and hoped that they wouldn’t keep pushing the topic on Bridgette. Well, he was sure that he’d hear about it before school started tomorrow.

Thursday Mornings were always really hard on the group. They had been talking about moving or changing the Wednesday patrol, but nothing really serious. They needed to scan the city at night at least once in the week nights.

It was currently break and the group was sitting at their normal spot. Félix was leaning against the bench reading a book, a novel, Louis noted. At least he wasn’t reading a text book. Bridgette was nibbling on a day old croissant, which was her normal lunch. And Hugo and Emma were playing clapping games because they thought it would help keep them stay awake.

Louis was about to lean over and ask Félix what his book to start a conversation, but he noticed someone walking toward the group.

“Hey guys,” He said and they all looked at him, Hugo and Emma freezing their game where they were. “Code useless mask, headed right for us,” he said. He figured that they’d be able to understand what he meant by it.

None of them had, because they all turned to see what he was looking at. (‘Really subtle you guys!’) Hugo shot him a disapproving look when he figured out what Louis had meant.

He would have done something in reply but Madeleine walked over to the group and sat down in one of the gaps in their lazily made circle. “Sup’ dorks,” She said with a big smile on her face. She clearly had something she wanted to say.

“Hey Maddie,” Félix replied not looking up from his book.

Louis had respected Maddie even before she’d started chasing them around as their superhero selves. Not many could break Félix’s cold exterior but Maddie had done it. Of course the fact she knew Cat Noir certainly helped her get over the first major jump.

“So as you all know I’m the head of the journalism club at this school,” She started.

“Where are you going with this Maddie?” Bridgette asked when she’d finished her lunch. “And if this has to do with your club, where are,” Bridgette paused, trying to remember the names of her childhood friend’s current friend group.

“Milly and Tami?” Maddie threw her older friend a line.

“Tamiya and Amelia!” Bridgette finished, proud of the fact she’d been able to recall both their full names.

“Yes, well,” Maddie started. “I’ve purposefully kept them out of the loop on this, and I’m sure you’ll thank me for it later,” She shifted and dug in her bag to get her phone. “I caught something on film that I think you will find interesting,”

The group looked around at each other in confusion as the pulled closer to look at the small screen on the phone. “I didn’t really get all of it, but I did see all of it,” she said as she hit play.

immediately everyone in the group felt the blood draining from their faces, she was showing them a video of them transforming.

“When did you,” Hugo was trying to place where and when she could have seen it.

“Maddie I can explain,” Bridgette started.

“You need to delete that video,” Félix nearly cut her off.

Madeleine laughed at the different panicked reactions she’d gotten. She turned to them one at a time, “Last night. There’s nothing else to explain. Yeah I know,”  

they all sat in silence after she’d shut them up. “Well? You’re not going to ask me what I was doing out there?” She asked annoyed.

“Oh, we know,” Emma replied simply, she wasn’t going to say much more.

“Your mask is cute, but it doesn't do much to hide your identity,” Louis filled in for his friend.

“At least mine covers all of my face,” Maddie pouted.

“So,” Hugo started. “You’re not mad at us? For lying to you?”

“No not really, I am kinda miffed you didn’t tell me though,” she replied and looked at the dirt.

“We weren’t even supposed to tell each other.” Hugo informed her. “So what’s the difference between four people knowing and five?” Maddie smiled at his words.

Bridgette could feel Tikki protesting already but luckily the kwami was with Marinette today. Come to think of it, she could also see Marinette taking Tikki’s side.

“Hey hey Maddie,” Emma called and signaled for the girl to come closer and whispered something in her ear when she did. Louis had been listening and burst out laughing halfway through what she was saying. Madeleine looked at her confused.

“Uh that’s really not,” She started but Louis cut her off.

“No. Let her do this,” Madeleine looked at all of them annoyed but kept quiet.

“Félix, Bridgette,” Emma started, and the two exchanged worried looks before turning back to their friend. “Madeleine and I have discussed it, and she’s not going to delete the video unless,” Emma couldn’t contain her smirk.

Maddie just looked passed Emma and tried to communicate that she really had no part in this. Bridgette sighed, she knew where this was going but she didn’t want to admit it. “Unless what Emma?”

“Unless you and Félix go out on a date, together,” Emma could barely hold in her laughter, Bridgette and Félix both looked like they were going to die. “And you’d have to take a few pictures to prove you really did it! Doing something really romantic!”

Hugo was trying to play the adult in the group but the faces his friends were making were really funny, “Emma,” He tried to scowl but he could barely hold it, and Emma just burst out laughing at his face.

“But yeah, this is a totally serious threat,” She turned back to her friends. “Right Maddie?” Emma turned her head to the small girl who was still sitting next to Louis.

“Uh, yeah sure,” She replied and then looked around for something. “So just text me when you want me to delete it. I have to go before Milly and Tami get suspicious,”

“Alright bye!” Louis called after her. “And remember! Don’t tell anyone!”

“I’ve been keeping it secret that I meet up with them for months now, I can handle that,” She rolled her eyes at him, and then stopped to say something to her old friend. “Good luck on your date!”

Bridgette flushed and nearly yelled something after her friend but bit her tongue instead.

“So are you going to go through with it?” Louis asked the two of them.

“I’m willing,” Bridgette muttered and then immediately regretted it. “I mean! Only if you are!”

Félix could feel his cheeks getting hotter as he answered, “I want to!” he bit down on his lip because his words had come out louder than he’d intended. “I mean like, it can’t be that different from hanging out with friends…”

“Yeah, hanging out with friends, so after school today?” Bridgette parroted back to him.

“Uh yeah, sure,” They both gave each other tentative smiles before turning away embarrassed.

“Gross,” Emma said and stuck her tongue out at them.

“This is your fault though,” Louis replied as the bell went off. They went through their classes and by the end of History it was clear that both Bridgette and Félix were panicking about their last minute date.

Louis had taken pity on his friend and was walking to Félix’s last class with him “Look just calm down, there’s really no way it could go wrong,”

“Yeah I know, but still,” Félix muttered and looked at the ground and kicked at a small rock. His gate had widened and his shoulders were more slaked than normal, Louis noted that this was the first time he’d really seen Félix behave like Cat Noir in public.

“There is no ‘but still’! You and Bridgette both like each other, if the two of you’d stop panicking whenever the subject was brought up you’d be able to see that,”

“I guess you’re right,” Félix said as he turned into his classroom, “See you later Louis,” he called as he walked in and looked around for Bridgette in the back of the classroom.

“Later Félix!” Louis yelled into the room before running off to his own final period.

The class was over soon enough and Bridgette slowly put her computer into her bag, she hadn’t been paying attention to the lesson at all. After all she’d wanted to go on a date with Félix for a long time, though it had mostly been before she learned he was Cat Noir.

She saw him waiting stiffly by the exit for her, he was clearly as nervous as she was. She tried to shake off her jitters, this was going to go very badly if all they did was stutter. They were capable of talking to each other she knew that much!

“Hey,” He greeted when she walked over.

“Hey, ready to go?” She asked and felt her mouth pulling into an involuntary smile.

“Uh, do you know where we’re going?” He asked as they turned to leave the classroom.

“Well the park’s good for a walk but that wouldn’t last very long,” Bridgette started thinking. “Uh do you just wanna hang out at the bakery?” She finally asked when she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.

“I’ll go wherever you go, little bug,” He said and they were finally finding some level of banter they normally had behind their masks.

“Well come on then Kitty,” She said and sprinted across the street toward her house, she knew he hated it when she jay walked.

“Bridgette!” He yelled and for a second she could see him considering just running across himself but he voted against it and made a point of walking over to the cross walk and pressing the button.

“You’re a nerd,” Bridgette said when he walked across with the lights.

“You’re an unnecessary risk taker,” He replied and they both walked in the door of her family’s bakery.

Bridgette was leading him back into the house when her father came out of the bakery kitchen. “And who is this, dear?” Tom asked his younger daughter who jumped at his voice.

Félix was looking for the right words to introduce himself to Bridgette’s father but he knew nothing about the man! He didn’t even really remember his own father so he had nothing to look to for reference.

“Papa, this is Félix. I’ve told you about him before! He’s one of my friends,” Bridgette said as she ran over to give her father a kiss on his cheek.

“Oh right! He’s the one that likes to cook right?”  

“Yes, I love cooking,” Félix replied to the question, glad that he’d finally found his voice.

“Then you’re always welcome in our house!” Her Father announced to his daughter’s embarrassment. “I’m Tom Dupian, nice to meet you,” He held out his hand and Félix took it though his hand was very small in comparison to his.

“Félix Sancoeur, nice to meet you,” Bridgette grabbed Félix's other arm in the most platonic way she could find.

“Okay talk to you later Papa, We’re going to be upstairs!” she dragged him through a door and up two flights of stairs before she let him walk on his own.

She let out a small laugh as she opened the door to their living room. “Sorry about that, Papa has no problems putting my friends to work even when they don’t bake,”

“It’s fine, I wouldn’t mind helping out,” he said. Bridgette looked down at her phone.

“I’m pretty sure stocking shelves would not make for a ‘totally romantic selfie’,” She said and showed him her phone. She’d been open to a chat with Emma.

‘Make SURE you don’t forget a TOTALLY <3~romantic~<3 selfie!!! :P’

“Ah,” Was all he managed to say after he’d made out what in the text was words and what was emoji. “What do you think would be a romantic thing to do then?” He asked and was met with the silence of her thinking.

“Uh , well my parents, they,” Bridgette tried to think about what her parents did. They went out to fancy restaurants dressed up, but that didn’t seem like something she and Félix could do. “They, Bake together?” She supplied.

“Do you want to bake something?” Félix asked and Bridgette smiled.

“Yeah sure, after all it’s something I’m good at!” She ran over to the kitchen and pulled down a recipe book and different ingredients.

“We could make a vanilla cake,” Félix called as Bridgette went looking for other ingredients.

“Alright! Sounds good!” She said when she ran back into the room. “I’ll sift the flour!” she said as she put down the flour she’d been carrying and started digging through their pans below the counter in one move.

About halfway through mixing everything together Bridgette instructed Félix to take a picture with both of them in it.

Félix took them until he got one with both of them in focus and then sent it out to a group chat, With the caption ‘Happy now?’

Maddie had replied with ‘looks cute :D but i already deleted the video …’ And Emma replied with ‘Baking? >_> really you guys?!???!’ and Félix felt himself giggling.

Bridgette had also seen the chat as she was setting the timer on her phone. “Okay!” she said when that was done. “Now all we have to do is wait 45 minutes, want to play a game?” She asked as she ran over to her family’s TV.

“What games do you have?” he asked as he followed her.

“Oh! Have you ever play this?” She said as she threw an empty game box at him.

“Harvest Moon? No I haven’t,” He replied.

She had already put the disk in the console. “I think you’ll like it!”

Marinette Dupain Cheng had seen a lot of weird things in her living room, she’d come to expect a lot of things when she opened the door. One thing that was definitely not on the list of expected things was her little sister arguing with her not-boyfriend about how to seduce a video game character.

“Shouldn’t you give her that? It will raise her points faster!” Félix said and pointed to something in their inventory.

“No those are really hard to find! You can sell them for a lot!” Bridgette replied.

They hadn’t even noticed Marinette walking in. (Lucky for them Félix’s kwami had. Tikki flew over to where she’d seen her friend turn to hide.)

“I think it would be a better idea to focus on growing crops so early in the game,” Marinette chimed in and both of the younger kids jumped.

“Marinette! I didn’t hear you come in!” Bridgette said.

“yeah I’m home,” Marinette replied as she jumped over the couch and sat down where she landed, “So what are you guys doing in the game?”

Soon Félix and Bridgette were trading off playing while Marinette kept giving them information from the internet on her phone. Both of the kids got angry at her when she’d just look up the answer to something they were stuck on.

“Marinette dear? Someone is here to see you,” Their mother called into the room from downstairs.

Marinette looked over in confusion. “Who is it Mama?” She asked as she got up to open the door.

“A boy from an old class of yours?” Her mother said though it sounded more like she was asking and not saying. “He says his name is Adrian,”

Marinette seemed surprised, “Alright, send him up!” She yelled and then signaled that Bridgette and Félix stop playing the game or at least stop fighting over the controller.

The name seemed to alarm Plagg, who skipped right by Félix and went straight to Marinette.

“Don’t let him in here!” The kwami told the girl in a panic.

“Why not?” Marinette said annoyed. She’d never been fond of Cat Noir’s kwami.

“Adrian was your Cat Noir!” Plagg said in a rush.

“I don’t believe you, you said that you couldn’t tell me who Cat Noir was,” Marinette replied.

“That was before I knew he’d been turned into an akuma!” Plagg told the girl in annoyance.

“How did you not know that?” Marinette scowled at the kwami.

“Plagg! Get down!” Félix hissed as the footsteps walking up the stairs got closer. The kwami complied as Bridgette signaled Tikki to hide as well.

“Good afternoon Marinette!” the boy greeted. She did her best to not go into a battle stance and not just because she’d just been informed this boy was the akuma she’d been looking for. “I’m sorry to drop by unannounced like this. But there’s something I need to ask you and your sister.”

Bridgette shifted on the couch and Félix moved so that he was between her and the others.

“And what,” Marinette started, she had clearly accepted what Plagg had told her. “Would that be?”

To anyone else that had been listening Adrian seemingly dropped the subject. “Your earrings you wore today are beautiful. I haven’t seen you wear them since middle school,”

At that Marinette took a rather large step back, before he could touch her ears. Félix decided that if he wanted to die, this wasn’t the worst way to go, so he walked around the couch and right over to Adrian.

“Cut that out. We know what you are and you know what we are,” When he stood on the balls of his feet he almost came out to the same height as the boy who’d just walked in.

“I’m sorry, who is this brat?” He turned his question to Marinette.

“Félix go sit down please,” Marinette instructed him.

“No actually, I think he’s right. We should drop this act of not knowing,” Adrian said happily, though he was trying to be scary. “Today I came here, to confirm that the Ladybug sisters were exactly who I thought they were.” He turned to Félix, “Although I really don’t know who you could be shrimp, sorry.”

Félix had never been one to favor using words. So when he got angry he didn’t yell at the boy who had hurt Plagg and threatened his friends, he raised his fist and threw it right into the boy’s cheek bone.

“Jesus kid!” Plagg yelled as he flew over in an attempt to keep his new partner from murdering his old one, or vice versa.

Adrian was holding where Félix had hit him but he had a devious smirk, “Oh I get it now,”

“That was for trying to kill Plagg!” Félix shot.

“It wasn’t my fault that he got in my way, maybe it is mine that I failed though,” Adrian replied.

“Yeah okay, but you never did anything like that,” Plagg said to Adrian. Both Félix and Plagg managed to see the genuine panic that flew across Adrian's face but it looked like Bridgette and Marinette had missed it.

“Well I’ve gotten more than I came here for, rest assured m’lady,” he turned to Marinette. “My father and I will beat you and your team!”

Marinette’s brow knit tight in confusion, “Your … father?”

“Hawkmoth.” Adrian replied but his face filled with fake surprise. “You didn’t even know that? After all these years? Well I need to take my leave now,”

He turned tail and ran down the stairs. They heard Sabaine call after him ’What happened to your face?’ but thankfully he’d brushed her off.

Marinette just slumped against the wall letting out a huge sigh. She smelled the air. “Is something burning?” she asked.

“Bridgette, your phone!” Félix said when he saw that it was going off, but Bridgette had already run over to the oven and opened it to a face full of smoke as she pulled out the charred remains of their cake. She let out her own heavy sigh when she put it down on the counter.

Félix felt his own shoulders go slack at all that had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading~


	10. Ten

Emma and Louis Had come to school early on Friday so that they could have plenty of tease time to Bridgette and Félix about their date. Hugo was already there when they arrived at their spot.

“What brings the two of you here together?” He asked quizzically, he must have known what they were after.

“Oh you know, we both wanted to beat our love birds to school!” Louis started as he sat down next to Hugo. “And we happened to bump into each other when we were walking over.”

“Yup! So are they here yet?” Emma asked and hugo let out a laugh.

“Nope, just the three of us, Bridgette should get here soon enough though,” Hugo informed his friends. “Honestly I want to know what happend too! Neither of them ever responded to the group text,”

Emma looked down at her phone, so they hadn’t, that did seem a little suspicious. She felt a silly smirk spreading on her face.

“There’s no way anything like _that_ happened Emma,” Louis said when he saw her smirk. “It’s hard enough to get them to talk about liking each other,”

“Oh I know but it is something I can tease them about!” Emma replied.

“Oh look! there’s Bridgette!” Hugo called and pointed down the path to the girl that was approaching. As she walked closer it became clear to the group that she wasn’t in a joking mood.

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked when she got close enough to hear.

“A whole lot of things,” Bridgette started and then let out a big sigh. “On the bright side though, we now know who Hawkmoth is,”

Hugo looked at her like she was crazy, Emma was still trying to understand what her friend had just said and Louis wanted to know more.

“What happened yesterday?” he asked. Bridgette sat down on the ground and Emma followed suit. Tikki flew out and sat down in her partner's lap.

“Yesterday, Félix and I went to my house to hang out,” She brushed over the topic of the date, it all seemed so trivial to her right then. “Eventually my sister came home and someone had come to see her,”

“Who did, Hawkmoth?” Hugo asked terrified, he couldn’t see how this tied back to Hawkmoth yet and it was starting to make him nervous.

“No but an underling of his did; you guys remember the akuma we let get away at Adrian Agreste’s birthday?”

“Yeah, we all took it badly but your sister told us there was nothing to do,” Emma replied.

“Of course we remember that, the akuma nearly killed Félix,” Hugo said making sure he wasn’t being too loud.

“Turns out that akuma _was_ Adrian Agreste, and his father is Hawkmoth,” Bridgette said simply.

The other kwami had come out of their normal hiding places to listen to the information Bridgette had.

“That can’t be right,” Kippu said from his partner's shoulder.

“Why can’t it?” Louis asked.

“Because that would mean!” Bebbe started before stopping to think about what it really meant.

“That the son of our enemy was the last Cat Noir?” Plagg voice rang out as Félix quietly sat down with the group. “yes, that seems to be where we are right now,” Plagg finished.

“I told my sister to be careful at work today, I don’t know if she’s going to listen though,” Félix muttered and Bridgette nodded her head in reply.

“Don’t worry, he said he didn’t recognize you, there’s no way he’ll link Nathalie back to you,” she said as she put a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh my god! That means your sister works for Hawkmoth?” Emma asked scared when she put everything together.

“She’s probably fine, like Bridgette said; she’s been working for him for years it’d be weird for him to turn on her now,” Félix paused. “God! I always hated her boss but I never thought it was something like this!”

“Look on the bright side kid, it means you’ve been making her boss’s life miserable without getting her in trouble,” Plagg replied. Félix smiled at that.

“Okay so, we know who Hawkmoth is and we even know where to find the akuma we let get away,” Emma started. “So what’s our next move?”

“Tikki, I’ll let you take this,” Bridgette said to her kwami.

Tikki nodded and signaled for the other kwami to get closer. “The past Ladybug was talking with me and she’s insistence that Chat Blanc was a failing of her team. She wants them to meet up,”

“You want us to go find our old partners?” Zetta asked.

“Yes, I don’t know what she’s planning, but she’s not going to let these kids save Chat Blanc on their own,” Tikki clarified.

“But didn’t they quit because they didn’t want to be heroes anymore? What if they’ve moved away from the city?” Louis asked.

“I know where my old partner is,” Bebbe stated.

“Yeah I do too,” Kippu joined in.

“And I could probably find mine too,” Zetta said to his partner.

“Alright so that’s that,” Tikki said. “You should start looking after everyone’s out of school for the day,”

“I suppose we won’t want to go find Plagg’s last partener though,” Félix had said as a joke to lighten the mood, Tikki hadn’t caught it. (Or if she did she’d ignored it.)

“You are going to go with Bridgette and her sister to do something else important,” She told the boy forcefully.

They all went about their day trying to act like nothing was wrong, it was hard on them but at the same time they needed to keep normalcy in their lives.

Maddie hadn’t been convinced nothing was wrong when she came over to bug them at the start of lunch but she accepted what they said with a grain of salt. It was only after she’d left that they worried maybe lying to Maddie hadn’t been the best idea.

Soon enough the day was over and they all met after school before splitting up to go find the previous heroes of Pairs. (Plus whatever Tikki was having Félix and Bridgette do.)

 

Emma had gotten curious where they were going when Bebbe instructed her to get on the bus. How far away was she going to have to go?

“She didn’t take the bus to school, so I’m kind of guessing but get off at the next stop,” Emma’s partner told her from inside her school bag, this was going to be an adventure at the very least.

The bus pulled up to the stop and Emma rushed to get off. when she stepped out she was in a vaguely familiar park. No where she could place though.

“Okay Bebbe, where to next?” She muttered to her bag. Her kwami peeked her head out from the zipper and assessed their surroundings.

“Oh! Over there, that’s where she lives!” Bebbe pointed to a tall building.

“Uhh, Bebbe,” Emma started looking at the building annoyed.

“What?”

“That’s a hotel,” Emma looked down at her open bag.

“Yeah, she lives in the hotel,” Bebbe said simply. “Unless I have the wrong hotel?” she tried to come further out of the bag until Emma panicked and held it closed.

“No I don’t think you do, it’s the only hotel around here after all,” Emma said as she threw her bag over her shoulders. “Let’s go!”

She ran up the steps to the hotel’s entrance. “hey Bebbe, I’m gonna need her name!” Emma said toward her backpack, she was moving fast  though so people weren’t going to look at her too weirdly.

“Chloé Bourgeois,” Her kwami answered as Emma found herself face to face with the fancy glass doors of the Grand Paris Hotel, the site of their last battle with Chat Blanc.

 

Zetta had told Hugo to just walk to where they were going, and the hero thought it was weird that Zetta’s previous partner would be so close to the school that they all went to.

“And I think you need to take a left there, and then go straight for a while,” Zetta told him from inside the scarf Hugo had put on specifically to hide his kwami.

“Alright, what am I looking for after that?” Hugo said as he took the corner, the place seemed distantly familiar.

“We had a fight with an akuma there once, you remember Strawberry Sunrise?” The kwami asked.

Hugo’s mouth twisted into a pout as he tried to recall what Zetta was talking about. “No I don’t,” He admitted sadly.

“The mantis monster akuma?” Zetta asked, sure that would be enough to trigger the memory.

“Oh! That place!” Hugo said happily. “Yeah, I know where that is!” and with that he started running through the streets. Eventually he came across the small unassuming entrance and headed down.

“That fight’s the reason we’re looking here. He’s the DJ at the place,” Zetta said into Hugo’s ear. Hugo nodded in reply and hoped he didn’t look too weird. Not that there were many people around to judge him.

Hugo looked around and saw the DJ glaring at him, she was tall and had stripes of red in her hair. She looked nothing like the person he remembered.

“You mean her?” He asked his kwami in confusion.

“Uh no? Nino’s a guy,” Zetta said as he poked his head out of Hugo’s scarf. “Geez they must have DJ’s that work in shifts!”

Hugo sat down at a table in the back and patted his kwami on the head, making it look like he was rubbing his shoulder.

 

Kippu had taken Louis through the park and into a seemingly endless residential district. All the houses were starting to look the same and Louis was sure that his kwami had no clue where they were going.

“And now you need to go this way, I think,” Kippu told him.

They hadn’t seen another living soul on the streets, everyone must have been at work or coming home from school. It was enough to make Louis nervous.

“You don’t know where we’re going,” Louis said to his kwami.

“Yes I do!” Kippu pouted in retaliation. “It’s just been a while and everything looks the same!”

“Yeah well I’m not going to argue with you there,” Louis said as he followed Kippu’s shaky directions.

“Ah! There! There it is!” He cheered and flew off towards one of the houses, Louis was really starting to worry about his partner being seen so he ran off after him.

“Kippu you need to stay down,” Louis scolded. He had cupped the kwami in his hands when he caught up. “And anyway, what am I supposed to do with their house? Knock on the door?”

“I guess? I don’t know where else you could find her though,” Louis sighed and turned his attention to the house.

He’d already seen every house in the development a hundred times but this house was looking familiar for an entirely different reason. He’d been here in the night during Patrols, when he’d been walking Maddie home.

“Kippu,” He said.

“yeah,” His kwami answered.

“Are you aware of whose house this is?”

“I am very acutely aware of whose house it is,” The kwami said when he’d realized what the problem was.

 

“Keep up you two!” Marinette yelled at Bridgette and Félix as they jumped from roof to roof. They were all transformed right then, Marinette said they needed to secure a base of operations.

“Maybe you should slow down, I’m the one with the Miraculous after all,” Bridgette grumbled and only Félix had been able to hear it. He laughed and that caused Bridgette to smile.

When they were done running, Marinette had stopped them in front of what looked to be an artist’s workshop.

“What are we doing here again?” Félix asked the older Ladybug.

“I know the owner, and he sort of owes me a favor,” She said as she walked toward the entrance. “Stay behind me and stay quiet,” She told the two younger heroes.

She knocked before hearing a male voice calling ‘come in!’ She opened the door.

“Hello, Theo! It’s been a while,” She said as pleasantly as possible and hoped the older artist would not have a heart attack.

“Ladybug…” He said and looked at her in shock. “Why are you here I thought you quit?”

“I, I need a favor,” She said and at this point Félix and Bridgette walked in embarrassed. “These young ones are the future of the city and I need a space to train them properly,”

“So you came to me?” Theo asked while glaring at her.

“I don’t have a lot of options,” Ladybug admitted.

“Yeah it’s fine, I was leaving for the day anyway, just don’t break anything and lock the door when you’re done,” Theo replied as he walked past the crowd of heroes. “I’m happy to do anything to help keep the city safe!”

“thank you Theo!” Ladybug said and ran over to give him a hug, he stopped her though.

“Ah no way madam, If you’re training a new generation then you must be way older than me,” he said with a wink. “See you around Ladybug,”

“How old is that guy?” Bridgette asked when he’d closed the door.

“Like, five years older than me,” Marinette pouted.

 

“Look! I just need to talk to her for a minute!” Emma yelled at the receptionist of the hotel, She’d been refused when she’d asked to see Chloé.

“I’m sorry, she’s not actually a worker here, so you can’t have an appointment with her. We’re prohibited from informing people where the long term residents of the hotel live anyway,” The receptionist replied sounding like she was getting annoyed but doing a good job of keeping a professional exterior. That was a whole lot more than Emma.

“You don’t understand it’s very important!” Emma was too busy yelling to care about the door opening and a certain girl coming home from school. “Just tell Chloé that Bebbe sent me please,” Emma pleaded.

“I told you she dosen’t work here miss-“ the receptionist was cut off by the very person they were arguing about.

“Penny! Oh my god! You’re so big now! I haven’t seen you in forever!” Emma nearly jumped out of her skin when the strange girl started calling her a strange name. “How is Auntie Bebbe?” and then it all clicked in her mind.

“Oh Mama’s fine! She wanted me to talk to you!” Emma spun around and said. The receptionist was looking at the whole seen in utter confusion.

“She’s a family friend, I’ll be taking her up to my room okay? No need to worry,” Chloé told her and then dragged Emma off to the elevator.

“uh so,” Emma stammered when she was alone in the elevator with the person she’d been looking for.

“Is Bebbe with you right now?” The older girl asked curtly after Emma had started the conversation.

“I’m right here!” Bebbe said as she flew out of Emma’s bag. Chloé looked at her like she was shell shocked. “Good lying out there by the way, you really saved us!”

“I guess, Get down!” Chloé whispered as the doors started to open. Soon she dragged them to her room.

“What’s your name?” Chloé asked when they were alone.

“Uh, it’s Emma,” the younger replied and shifted where she stood.

“Uh-huh. Say how long have you been Melodie?” The older pushed.

“Just under a year,” Emma felt Bebbe move to sit on her head.

“So what’s your favorite tactic using Melodie's powers?”

“Uh, sometimes I plant my lance in the ground and use it to spin around, I guess,” Emma trailed off.

Chloé nodded. “And what’s your favorite color?”

Emma thought about it for a second before replying “Yellow … ?”

The older girl broke out into a smile and turned to Bebbe, “I like her!”

“I knew you would,” the Kwami replied between giggles.

“Is this about Chat Blanc?” Chloé asked finally.

“Yes, it is.” Bebbe answered the question. Emma felt her phone vibrate silently, “Your Ladybug is asking for everyone to meet up, so that all of us can save him.”

“Save him huh?” Chloé asked and looked at the ground for a second. “Alright I’m in,”

 

After arguing with Zetta over what to do, Hugo went to ask the current DJ where the one he was looking for was.

“Uh hi,” He said and she shot him an annoyed glance.

“What’d you want kid? Request a song?” She glared at him and turned back to her laptop.

“Oh, no! I was wondering if someone by the name of Nino works here?” Hugo asked her carefully.

“Nino? What could you possibly want with him?” The girl asked in reply.

“It’s a little personal,” Hugo dodged the question. “Can you tell me when he’s going to show up?”

“He’s supposed to be here pretty soon, I don’t know if he’ll come though, he’s a total flake,” And with that the girl turned her focus back to the music.

After it was clear that she wasn’t going to talk to him anymore, Hugo left to go wait outside for the person. His phone had gone off indicating that someone had texted him but he didn’t feel the mood to check it right then.

“I don’t like her,” Zetta muttered when they were outside.

“Why not? She seemed nice enough,” Hugo said.

“She said he’s a flake! He was one of the most reliable people I’ve ever interacted with!” the kwami pouted.

“I’m sure that you’re right,” Hugo replied and looked down the street both ways. When he looked to his left he saw exactly who he was looking for, the DJ, Nino!

Hugo didn’t even stop to point him out to Zetta before running toward him. That had been his mistake.

“Hey are you Nino?” He yelled happily as he approached. The DJ stiffened when Hugo said his name. That caused Hugo to stop in his tracks.

“Why do you want to know kid?” Nino said as he looked at Hugo. The younger threw his hands in front of him in defence.

“Ah, well it’s just that,” Hugo suddenly found himself unable to find the right words under the DJ’s stare, lucky for him Zetta deemed it safe to fly out from Hugo’s scarf and to Nino.

Hugo watched as his kwami flew out from his scarf and toward the older man. “Nino! I’ve missed you so much!” Zetta said as he nuzzled Nino’s chest. Nino on the other hand was just looking at the kwami like he’d seen a ghost.

“Zetta… What are you doing here?” He finally managed to say. At that point Hugo walked over.

“Uh well we’re both here because we need the help of the previous miraculous holders,” Hugo informed the DJ.

“Is this to find Cat Noir?” Nino asked as he held Zetta away from the eyes of passersbys.

“Um Chat Blanc, and fighting him yes,” Hugo said as he tried to remember the details.

Nino nodded and passed Zetta back to Hugo, “Alright, hang right here, I need to go tell Samantha I’m ditching today,” He grumbled.

“Is that way she thinks you’re a flake?” Hugo asked innocently.

“Watch your tongue kid,” Nino called to him without turning back.

 

Louis had ducked behind the fence when Maddie had come home from school and was currently hiding away from the view of the windows.

“You just need to go and ask if Alya’s home,” Kippu told him, he was starting to lose his patience.

“No way! Maddie already didn’t believe us when we told her everything was fine! If I show up at her house looking for her sibling, she’ll know something's up.” Louis hissed at his kwami, the streets were still mostly empty and if someone did walk by he could make it look like he was tying his shoe.

“Well how else are we going to find … her …” Kippu stammered off looking somewhere behind Louis.

Louis didn’t know what was wrong at first until he felt the sun was no longer hitting his back. He turned around slowly to find a university aged girl looming over him.

“What are you doing in front of my house?” She asked.

“Well that depends,” Louis said once he’d gathered himself again. “Are you Alya?”

“Yes I am, is that a kwami your hiding behind your back?” Louis caught himself thinking that a former superhero should beat around the bush a little more. ( _“That depends are you Alya?” “That depends on who’s asking.”)_   

“And not just any kwami either!” Kippu said as he flew out of Louis’s hands and over his head. “It’s good to see you again Alya,”   

The girl panicked and looked around before grabbing the kwami and the younger boy and dragging them off toward the park.

“Okay, what do you want?” She asked when they were behind a tree in the park. Louis looked to Kippu who signaled him to answer the question.

“We were looking for you because we need your help to defeat Chat Blanc,” Louis answered.

“Alya I know you stopped because you thought there was nothing you could do, but there is and we need you!” Kippu pleaded.

“Find someone else to help you,” was Alya’s only reply.

“No we’re going to need everyone to fight him!” Louis pleaded.

“The only thing that I’m good for is recording and even then I don’t have the ability to share it anymore,” Alya stated. Louis felt a memory flash in his head, from the fight with Chat Blanc. It was a single girl standing in the crowd that Melodie had been protecting, it was Alya’s.

“You were there weren’t you?” He asked. Alya’s face twisted in shame. “You were at the party that night. You saw what we’re facing!” He said feeling anger build up in his chest.

“I’ve known of Chat Blanc’s powers for a lot longer than that,” She said as she turned away.

“Then why are you refusing to help?” Louis nearly screamed, both Alya and Kippu needed to signal him to stay quiet.

Alya let out a sigh, “I don’t have the right to be a hero anymore,” She started. Kippu went to say something but Alya stopped him signaling that she would keep talking. “I was the last of our team to see Cat Noir before he, turned. And when he did I thought it was my fault,”

“There’s no way it could have been,” Kippu told his old partner.

Alya shook her head. “I know that it wasn’t my fault, but I was the first to quit, if I hadn’t done that then maybe our group would have stayed together and we could have helped him a while ago.” Louis looked at the older girl unsure of what to say to her comments. Had the older team really disbanded just because one of their members quit?

He did find some words, though he wasn’t sure of how the other would take them. “If you regret quitting the first time,” Louis started. “Then why are you quitting now too? Wouldn’t it be better to earn the title of hero back then sit and whine that you aren’t worthy of it anymore?”

“Oh Geez! Alright I’ll go with you!” Alya blurted, glaring at Louis as she did. Louis felt his phone buzz in his pocket. When he looked down Bridgette had texted out the location that they were all going to be meeting at, Louis quickly memorized it and put his phone back into his pocket.

“Alright then, that was the address so we can go now,” Louis said to his kwami.

“Alright! I Actually haven’t done this recently so this’ll be fun,” Kippu cheered.

“What will?” Alya asked.

“Transforming at the same time,” Louis said. “We need to say it at the same time.”

The park was mostly empty but all the same the words ‘Wings out!’ rang out in the park and green light soon followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! Also there's another Code Lyoko reference in there if you want to take a guess!


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